Selling Your Property in Uncertain Times

When the news is full of economic uncertainty, property sellers face a question that feels almost impossible to answer: is now a good time to sell, or should I hold on and wait for things to settle down?

It’s a reasonable instinct to pause. But “waiting it out” is only the right call in certain situations – and in the meantime, the private treaty sale process that most sellers default to may be quietly costing them time they can’t afford to lose.

Updated by: Mark Grantham on 23rd March 2026

Should You Wait It Out?

Sometimes, market uncertainty is short-lived. A sudden event – a geopolitical shock, a surprise policy announcement, an unexpected shift in sentiment – can create a wave of negative headlines that makes the market feel far worse than it actually is. In these cases, buyer confidence can return relatively quickly, often within weeks or months, once the initial noise dies down.

But not all slowdowns are equal. Some reflect longer, more structural shifts that won’t resolve themselves quickly. The key is learning to tell the difference.

Signs a slowdown may be temporary:

• The cause is a single, identifiable external event rather than an underlying economic trend
• Mortgage availability and lending criteria haven’t materially changed
• Employment levels and household finances remain broadly stable
• Transaction volumes have dipped, but asking prices haven’t meaningfully fallen

Signs a slowdown may be more fundamental:

• Interest rates are rising or staying high for an extended period
• Government policy changes are directly affecting buyers (stamp duty, mortgage rules, landlord legislation)
• Consumer confidence has been declining over several months, not just weeks
• The wider economy is contracting or showing sustained signs of stress

Right now, both types of pressure are at play – short-term shocks alongside longer-term policy and economic headwinds. That combination makes it harder than usual to know when “normal” will return, and it’s worth being realistic about that when planning your sale.

Sellers should ask themselves:

• Do I genuinely need to sell now, or do I have the flexibility to wait?
• Can I afford – financially and practically – for my property to sit on the market for six months or more?
• If I wait, is there a realistic reason to expect conditions will improve, and over what timeframe?

It’s also worth remembering that waiting has its own costs. Properties left vacant can deteriorate. Running costs continue. And if you’re already under financial pressure, a prolonged wait can make a difficult situation worse. The decision to hold on should be an active one, not just a default.

The Hidden Problem with Private Treaty Sales

Most sellers – particularly those who are new to the process – assume that going under offer with an estate agent means the hard part is over. In reality, under offer simply means a buyer has expressed interest. There is no legal commitment on either side until contracts are exchanged, and that can take months.

In an uncertain market, this gap between offer and exchange becomes particularly problematic. Buyers get cold feet. Mortgage offers are withdrawn. Chains collapse. A sale that looked secure in January might fall through in April – and the seller is back to square one, having lost months of time and often paid for surveys, legal work, and ongoing holding costs.

This isn’t a criticism of estate agents. It’s simply how the private treaty system works. And in a stable, confident market, sellers can often absorb that risk. In an uncertain one, it can be genuinely problematic.

Why Auction Is Fundamentally Different

Selling by auction operates on a completely different set of rules – and those rules matter more than ever when market conditions are difficult.

The most important difference is this: with a private treaty sale, the moment you accept an offer, you effectively take your property off the market and place all your trust in a single buyer who has made no legal commitment. With auction, the property remains openly available to all buyers right up until the moment contracts are exchanged – which happens on the fall of the hammer.

That one distinction changes everything. You are not pinning your hopes on one buyer who might back out. You are running a transparent, time-limited process where the result – whatever it is – is legally binding the moment it happens.

Other features that make auction well-suited to uncertain markets:

• Legal pack prepared in advance – buyers carry out their due diligence before bidding, not after, which removes the most common causes of post-offer delay
• Fixed timescales – completion typically occurs within 28 days of exchange, giving sellers certainty over their timeline
• No renegotiation – the price agreed at auction is the price paid; there’s no scope for a buyer to chip away at the figure after the fact
• Transparent process – every buyer sees exactly what others are willing to pay

What If My Property Doesn’t Sell?

This is one of the questions we’re asked most often in a slower market.

If a property doesn’t sell at auction, it isn’t a disaster. The auctioneer will continue to market the property and work to achieve a sale after the auction date. The key point is that you find out sooner rather than later. The auction process gives you a clear, fast read on where the market actually is – rather than spending months under offer with a buyer who eventually walks away.

With a private treaty sale, you can lose six months before realising a sale isn’t going to happen. With auction, you find out quickly and can act accordingly. That’s not a failure – it’s the process working as it should.

A Note on Competitive Bidding

In a confident market, one of the great advantages of auction is the potential for competitive bidding – multiple buyers pushing the price above the reserve. It happens regularly, and sellers are often pleasantly surprised by the result.

In an uncertain market, it’s sensible to plan conservatively. Our honest advice to sellers is always: hope for competitive bidding, but plan for a single buyer at the reserve. In difficult conditions, the real value of auction is less about the competition and more about the commitment – the legally binding nature of the sale, achieved efficiently and without the drawn-out uncertainty of the alternative.

That certainty, in a market full of noise, is worth a great deal.

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