How do you beat those odds?
When most people decide to put their SE16 home on the market, they assume one thing.
That it will sell.
After all, why wouldn’t it? You instruct an estate agent, the board goes up, photos appear on the portals and viewings get booked and offers made. Simples!
Except it is not.
Because what most SE16 homeowners never get told is the real probability of you selling and moving. Looking at every SE16 estate agent…
Over the last two years, your chances of selling and moving your SE16 home have been 35.4%.
The remaining 64.6% of homes (i.e. just over 3 in 5) failed to sell, withdrawing from the market unsold.
And those chances vary massively, property to property.
At the end of the day though, whether you sell your home or not almost always comes down to two things. The marketing of your home and its pricing. Every property is unique. Its location, condition, layout, presentation and even timing all play a part and so the marketing of the home needs to be bespoke as does its asking price. Interestingly, I was asked recently if the price band of a property made any difference to the home’s saleability. One would think it shouldn’t, yet the figures tell a different story.
Let me share with you what I found about the SE16 property market and the chances of getting your home sold (and moved), split down by price band.
Two Outcomes to Putting Your SE16 Home on the Market. That’s it.
Let’s start with something simple. When you list your home for sale, there are only two possible outcomes:
- You exchange contracts, complete the house sale and move home.
- You withdraw the property unsold.
Everything else is noise.
So, I have looked at the data for every SE16 property that has left every SE16 estate agent’s book over the last two years. Then calculated how many have successfully sold (& exchanged and completed) verses how many were withdrawn and never sold.
The results are eye opening.
The SE16 Selling Odds, Price Bracket by Price Bracket.
- Up to £250k: 40 homes sold & moved in SE16, 76 unsold & withdrawn. 34.5% success rate.
- £250k to £500k: 435 homes sold & moved in SE16, 717 unsold & withdrawn. 37.7% success rate.
- £500k to £1m: 436 homes sold & moved in SE16, 803 unsold & withdrawn. 35.2% success rate.
- £1m+: 30 homes sold & moved in SE16, 118 unsold & withdrawn. 20.1% success rate.
In simple terms:
- If your home is worth under £250k, you have a 1 in 3 chance of selling.
- Between £250k and £500k, it’s almost a 2 in 5 chance of moving.
- Over £500k, again it’s close to 1 in 3 chance of selling.
- And for £1m+ homes, only around 1 in 5 get moved.
This Is Not Just SE16!
You might be thinking, surely that is just SE16? Actually, no. A similar pattern plays out nationally and across London.
Here’s how SE16 compares:
- Up to £250k: London 33.2% & National 62.9%
- £250k to £500k: London 45.6% & National 53.7%
- £500k to £1m: London 41.8% & National 44.8%
- £1m+: London 31.8% & National 35.1%
So, as asking prices increase, the odds of selling your home fall.
Why do Higher-Priced SE16 Homes Struggle to Sell?
The higher up the price ladder you go, the smaller the buyer pool becomes.
There are fewer proceedable buyers. Affordability tightens. Mortgage stress tests get harder. Even wealthy buyers become more selective when borrowing costs rise. Yet the biggest thing with the most expensive homes is that they are harder to value and price right. Also, some estate agents like to have prestige homes on the market for kudos, so overegg the suggested asking price. Overpricing becomes the biggest danger of all.
The Danger of Overpricing Your SE16 Home.
When the market was red hot in 2021, many sellers got away with ambitious pricing. Buyers had FOMO. Mortgage rates were dirt cheap. Stock was limited.
But we are not in that market anymore.
In today’s 2025 SE16 market, pricing too high is the fastest way to end up in the withdrawal pile. Once your property goes stale, price drops often fail to undo the damage. Buyer confidence weakens. The home lingers unsold. And as the data shows, that is exactly what is happening to almost half of the sellers in certain price brackets.
Your SE16 Estate Agent Matters More Than Ever.
One of the biggest misconceptions sellers have is that ‘price equals value’.
It doesn’t.
Value is what someone will pay. And getting that buyer to step forward takes more than putting it online and hoping.
In this market, experienced SE16 estate agents do three things that make the difference:
- They price correctly from day one.
- They qualify and manage buyers effectively.
- They negotiate firmly and protect your sale through to exchange and completion.
The best agents understand the psychology behind buyer behaviour. They manage expectations. They create competition, not just interest.
Every SE16 Home Is Unique. But The Statistics Don’t Lie.
Of course, every property is different. The data here looks at the broader trends across SE16. You might have a home that defies these odds. You might also have a home that falls victim to them. What matters is not just knowing these statistics but understanding how they apply to your specific SE16 home, location, and condition.
The Real Question SE16 Sellers Should Ask.
The question SE16 homeowners should be asking is not:
“What price do I want?”
It is:
“What price gives me the best odds of successfully moving?”
Because nobody puts their SE16 home up for sale to just sit there. The goal is not to be on the market. The goal is to be moved and onto the next chapter of your life. And pricing correctly, from day one, remains the most powerful decision you control as a seller.
It is not about what asking price you place your home on for, it is about what you end up selling it for, compared to the price of the one you are buying. The real cost of moving is the gap between the two, not just how much you could get for yours. That is the bit most people forget when making home moving decisions.
These are my thoughts, do you have anything to add to them?
The SE16 Property Blog 