Home sellers bypass agents

More home owners than ever before are looking to avoid long chains and hefty estate agency fees by swapping their houses, according to several classified services.

Releasing figures for the first three months of 2009 by classified ad website Viva Street showed a 32% increase in home swapping ads on the previous quarter and 209% increase on the same quarter last year. Similarly, another classified ads website, Gumtree.com reported a 12% rise in home swap ads in the year to February 2009. Viva Street also reported a 380% rise in visitors viewing house swapping ads.

The trend towards home swapping is believed to be a response to a weak housing market and tougher mortgage criteria and rising prices on the high street. Speaking to The Telegraph newspaper, Yannick Pons, chief executive of VivaStreet.co.uk, said:

“Home swapping may seem a little off-the-wall but for the savvy seller it could be the key to finding that elusive buyer. The reality is that an increasing number of sellers, frustrated and disillusioned by the lack of genuine buyers coming through estate agents’ doors, have clearly decided it’s time to take matters into their own hands.”

House swapping is a relatively straightforward process. Details of the seller’s home are posted online, along with details of the type of house they wish to swap it for. Often, one party will be looking to move to a larger property and the other a smaller property. In such cases, the upscaling party will still need to complete a mortgage application. In addition, neither party will escape HIPs, surveying or stamp duty costs, so the main benefit is the avoidance of estate agency fees and low levels of buyer interest in an otherwise stagnated market.

“With many people struggling to make ends meet and worried about losing their jobs, there are a growing number of homeowners looking to downsize rather than upsize in the current economic climate,” Mr Pons explained. “This provides the perfect backdrop for home swaps – one party looking to upsize and the other looking to downsize.”