Published: 25/02/2024 By Tom Bloomfield
If you spend time searching for property online you will notice a good number of homes still being marketed using “99” style psychological pricing to make them appear better value. This includes tactical reductions of £5, £50 and sometimes even £5,000 or £55,000 on larger homes.This approach may have had a positive effect before the digital revolution but in the era of Zoopla and Rightmove it makes little sense. Here’s why:
- It shrinks the audience. Buyers searching online are forced to filter their searches by price using round numbers. This means a property pitched at £499,995 rather than £500,000 will not appear in the results for buyers who are searching between £500,000 and £600,000 for example.
- The property becomes harder to find. Properties priced at round numbers that match the defined price brackets will be more likely to appear on the first page of a buyer’s search results where they are more easily noticed.
When setting asking prices it’s time to do away with old-fashioned pricing techniques in favour of hitting those important round numbers.