My buyer says prices are falling. Should I accept less?

This is one of the most common conversations in a flat market, and it lands hardest when the headlines are helping the buyer. It is worth knowing that the headlines are not as clear as they sound. On 7 September 2026 Lloyds reported UK house prices 0.4% lower than a year earlier, its first annual fall since November 2023. Nationwide, measuring the same month, reported prices 1.6% higher. A buyer will quote whichever of those suits them.

Is my buyer right that house prices are falling?

Partly, and only on some measures. The picture on 7 September 2026 is a market moving sideways, described five different ways depending on who is counting.

A house price index is one organisation's average across its own sample of sales. It is not a valuation of your home, and it cannot be, because it has never seen your home. Where a buyer does have a fair point is competition. Rightmove reported new sellers cutting asking prices by 2.0% in August 2026, the largest August fall since 2018, with the number of homes for sale at a twelve year high.

What is a fair argument for a lower offer and what is not?

The test is whether the buyer is pointing at evidence about your home or at a mood about the country. One of those changes what your house is worth. The other does not.

How do I answer a buyer who says prices are falling?

1. 1. Do not answer the number on the spot

   Say you will come back to them, and mean it. A reduction accepted in the moment is very hard to walk back, and nothing about a national index requires an answer today.

2. 2. Ask for the comparable sales

   Ask the buyer or their agent to name the homes near you that sold for less, with addresses and dates. A serious argument survives that question and a negotiating line usually does not.

3. 3. Check the sold evidence yourself

   Look up completed sales for similar homes on your street and in your postcode over the last six months using HM Land Registry data, which records what buyers actually paid rather than what anyone asked.

4. 4. Work out what the reduction actually costs you

   Put the proposed figure through a net proceeds calculation, taking off agent fees, conveyancing and your outstanding mortgage, so you are deciding on the money that reaches your account rather than on the headline price.

5. 5. Weigh it against the cost of starting again

   Rightmove data from July 2026 puts the average time from an agreed sale to completion in Great Britain at 154 days, on top of 62 days to find a buyer. Losing a committed buyer to protect a small reduction can cost you more in months than the reduction costs in pounds.

6. 6. Reply with evidence, not indignation

   Come back with the sold prices that support your figure, and either hold your price, meet part way, or accept, as a decision you have made rather than one you were pushed into.

How can I tell whether this buyer is serious?

By what they have spent, not by what they say. Commitment is a solicitor instructed and paid, a mortgage application submitted rather than an agreement in principle, searches ordered, and a survey booked. A buyer who has done none of those and is already asking for money off is testing you cheaply.

That matters because the risk runs one way. Quick Move Now's figures for the second quarter of 2026, published on 31 July 2026, found mortgage and lending problems behind 33% of collapsed UK sales and survey problems behind a further 27%, with chain breaks, changes in the buyer's circumstances and legal issues accounting for 13% each. Sellers tend to commit money early, instructing solicitors, paying for management packs and coming off the market, while the buyer can still be viewing other homes and has spent nothing.

• Lining up your own solicitor early is cheap and keeps the sale moving, so do that whatever happens.
• Hold the larger spends and the decision to come fully off the market until the buyer has put their own money down.
• If a buyer wants a reduction before they have instructed anyone, ask them to instruct first and talk about price afterwards.
• Keep your agent talking to the buyer's agent about progress, because the pattern of a buyer's spending tells you more than any conversation about price.

A buyer who has paid for nothing has risked nothing. Read the commitment, not the confidence.

What if I genuinely am overpriced?

Then the buyer has done you a favour, and the signal will not come from the news. It comes from your own marketing. Very few viewings usually means the asking price is wrong for the audience. Plenty of viewings and no offers usually means the price is wrong for the house as buyers find it. Steady interest and one offer below asking usually means you are close and negotiating normally.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, and every valuation arrives with the agent's reasoning attached. Seeing several local agents price the same home against the same sold evidence is the fastest way to know whether a buyer's argument holds, and the seller stays anonymous until they choose to connect.

Common questions when a buyer asks for money off

The short version

You are not obliged to price your home to a national average that has never been inside it. Ask for the sold evidence, check it yourself, work out what the reduction costs you after fees and mortgage, and then decide. The timeline belongs to you and so does the number.