Home sellers who attract more than one offer typically agree a sale £6,000 above the first bid they receive, new analysis reveals.
The gap increases to £10,000 where four or more buyers make an offer, according to analysis by estate agency CRM provider Alto.
It analysed 905,265 offers made on 294,582 homes marketed between September 2025 and August 2026, finding 54.8% of sellers eventually accepted an offer above the first one received.
The typical property attracted two offers, while 69% received more than one.
MULTIPLE OFFERS
However, Alto’s figures also demonstrate the risk of sellers assuming another buyer will always come along.
Almost a third of properties (31%) received just one offer, while 24.6% of homes receiving an offer failed to reach an agreed sale at all.
A single offer was also less likely to be accepted, with an acceptance rate of 69% compared with 78% where sellers received multiple bids.
Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson (main picture, inset), Chief Executive Officer of Alto, says: “The first offer is almost never the best one, and now we can put a number on what that’s worth.
“Across nearly a million offers, the one that gets accepted sits at £6,000 above the first one a seller was shown, and £10,000 where four or more buyers are bidding.
“That isn’t a reason to hold out forever. A third of sellers only ever get one offer, and the longer a home sits on the market, the weaker that offer tends to look.”
SEVEN VIEWINGS
Alto’s analysis of 307,582 agreed sales also provides a benchmark for how much activity agents typically need to generate before securing a buyer.
The median property underwent seven completed viewings before a sale was agreed, with around seven weeks passing between the first viewing and the agreed sale.
Agents typically had to book nine appointments to generate those seven completed viewings.
More than a third of sales – 34% – required over 10 viewings, while just 6.4% were agreed following a single viewing.
PRICE IT RIGHT
More expensive properties generally required greater buyer activity.
Homes priced below £150,000 needed a median five viewings before securing a sale, compared with nine for properties between £650,000 and £1m.
Iannucci-Dawson says: “It’s a reason to get the price right on day one, because that’s what gets a second buyer through the door. Seven viewings and seven weeks is roughly what it takes.
“If you’re a fortnight in with nothing in the diary, that’s the conversation to have with your agent, rather than the one about cutting the price in month three.”
