How much should you offer on a house? Why 10% under is the wrong place to start.

What decides a sensible offer

There’s no fixed answer to how much to offer on a house. A sensible offer comes from weighing four things, and the asking price is part of only one of them.

• Where the asking sits against the sales. What comparable homes nearby actually sold for is firmer evidence than any asking price. An asking well above those sales leaves room below it. One at or below them leaves little.
• How quickly homes are selling locally. Where homes sell within weeks and draw several buyers, expect less room, and perhaps a call for best and final offers. Where a home has been on the market a long time, or its price has been cut, there may be more. Ask the agent how long it’s been listed and whether the price has changed.
• The seller’s position. A seller who has found their next home, or needs to move by a date, may care more about a quick, certain sale than the last few thousand pounds. No register shows this. The agent may tell you, if you ask.
• Your own position and ceiling. A seller may take a lower offer from a buyer who is chain-free or paying cash. Your ceiling is the most you can pay: what a lender will lend, your deposit and what you can manage each month.

None of these is a percentage. Yet the rule of thumb you’ll hear most is one: offer 10% under the asking and see what comes back. You’ll meet it in articles, on forums and from friends who’ve bought. It’s easy to remember, and it feels safe. The trouble is the number it starts from.

An asking price is set by the seller, usually on the agent’s advice. It’s where the seller would like to start, not a record of what homes like it sold for. The same goes for a home marketed at offers over a guide price.

Ten per cent off the asking is still ten per cent off the seller’s number.

So a fixed cut carries whatever is wrong with the asking. Where the asking is well above the sales, 10% under can still be more than those sales support. Where it’s at or below them, 10% under can be a low offer on a home that’s already priced under its sales.

Four homes, four different answers

Four homes from published SettleIQ redacted folios, all from October 2026, show the problem side by side. For each one, the folio gives a sales range: what comparable homes nearby sold for.

Frome: 10% under is still above the sales

The listed end-terrace in Frome is on at £695,000. At its 1,432 sq ft, homes like it nearby sold for £403,210 to £541,889, and the asking is above 23 of its 25 comparable sales. Ten per cent off comes to £625,500: still £83,611 above the top of the range.

That doesn’t make the asking wrong. A home can be priced above its sales for reasons the sales don’t show. But a buyer who opens at 10% under has accepted more than half of the gap before asking what it’s for. A lender’s valuer looks at recent comparable sales too. So before offering anywhere near 10% under, you’d want to know what a lender would lend if the house were valued at £542,000, the top of the range. There’s more on this house in our Frome worked example.

Walthamstow: 10% under is below the sales

The ground-floor flat in Walthamstow is on at £450,000. At 754 sq ft, the size on both its energy certificates, comparable flats nearby sold for £486,015 to £553,559. The asking is £36,015 below the bottom of that range. Ten per cent off comes to £405,000: £81,015 under it.

The advert gives a smaller 677 sq ft. At that size the range is £436,672 to £497,358. The asking sits inside it, and 10% under is still £31,672 below it. Either way, a 10% cut is a low offer on a flat already priced at or under its comparable sales, and an easy one for the seller to turn down.

Oxford and Manchester. In Oxford, 10% under the £2,500,000 asking comes to £2,250,000. That lands inside the sales range, though the asking itself is £165,244 above its top. In Manchester, 10% under the £425,000 asking comes to £382,500, £8,725 above the top of the range. Four homes, and 10% under lands above, inside and below the sales.

For the record, the four redacted folios’ own first offers ran from 2.2% to 31.0% under the asking.

Have a home in mind? Its asking price can go through the same check. See it against the sales →

Three questions before you offer

Ten per cent under starts from the seller’s number. These three questions start from the evidence, and from your own money.

Where does the asking sit against what comparable homes nearby actually sold for?

Those sales are firmer evidence than any asking price, and they’re public. GOV.UK’s Search sold property prices service shows what homes in England sold for, and when.

If the asking sits above most of those sales, 10% under may still be too much, as in Frome and Manchester. Ask the agent what’s different about this home. If it sits below them, as in Walthamstow, a deep cut risks losing it.

Is the size right? The advert against the energy certificate

An energy certificate records a home’s total floor area, and you can look one up and download it free with GOV.UK’s Find an energy certificate service. Three of the four homes’ adverts gave a different size from the certificate.

It changes the answer. In Manchester the certificate says 1,227 sq ft and the advert 1,304 sq ft. At the advert’s size, comparable homes sold for £342,026 to £397,199, and 10% under the asking lands inside that range, not above it. Ask the agent who measured the floor plan, and check it at the survey.

What would your lender lend?

A lender lends on its own valuation, not on the price you agree, and valuers look at recent comparable sales. If your offer is above those sales, the valuation may come in lower, and you’d cover the gap in cash. Before you offer above the sales, ask your broker what they’d lend if the valuation came in at the top of them. If it’s already happened, our guide on a mortgage down-valuation sets out your options.

Then one decision: your walk-away

Before you make the first offer, decide the most you’ll pay, from the sales and from what you can afford. Write it down and keep it to yourself. Then leave room between your first offer and where you hope to settle, so you can move up in small steps without passing it.

What to say to the agent

Phone the agent with your offer, then send it by email straight away, so it’s in writing. Ask them to pass it to the seller as written.

Put where you stand first: nothing to sell, a mortgage in principle, a solicitor ready. Then the number. Then the sales it rests on, as a list. A single figure invites an argument. A list of registered sales gives the agent something to check.

However low your offer, the agent must pass it on. Under the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991, made under the Estate Agents Act 1979, failing to forward an offer to the seller promptly and in writing is an undesirable practice. The exception is a kind of offer the seller has said in writing they don’t want to receive, such as one below a set amount. Ask the agent whether that applies.

You don’t have to answer a deadline on the spot, either. In England, an offer isn’t legally binding until contracts are exchanged.

Questions