Was it a buyers’ or sellers’ market?
Are you contemplating moving home in Southampton during the next 9 months?
You may be a Southampton landlord wondering whether you should grow your portfolio or sell off a few properties? Or you’re a Southampton first-time buyer considering if now is the best time to move?
Understanding whether the current property market favours buyers or sellers is key to making the right call. If you follow my regular Southampton property market updates, you will know one of the most dependable ways to assess the property market is by observing the percentage of homes marked as “Sold STC” or “Under Offer” compared to the total number of properties on the market.
Let me show that in practice. Let us say there are 600 properties on the market in a town or city, and say 400 of those properties are for sale, fully available to buy. The remaining 200 are under offer or sold STC. The 200 homes SSTC as a percentage of the overall total of 600 gives us a sales percentage of 33%. It is this percentage that gives a good indication of the local property market temperature and who holds the upper hand, i.e., buyers or sellers (or somewhere in between).
This percentage figure acts as a barometer for market conditions and can be analysed using this industry recognised table:
- Extreme Buyers’ Market (0%-20%)
- Buyers’ Market (21%-29%)
- Balanced Market (30%-40%)
- Sellers’ Market (41%-49%)
- Hot Sellers’ Market (50%-59%)
- Extreme Sellers’ Market (60%+)
How Does Southampton Compare?
Examining historical data from The Advisory’s website, which has tracked this metric for many years, reveals some key trends for Q1 for the last four years (and for comparison, all the quarters in 2025. For this exercise, Southampton is SO14 to SO19).
- Q1 2023 – 57%
- Q1 2024 – 52%
- Q1 2025 – 46%
- Q2 2025 – 44%
- Q3 2025 – 50%
- Q4 2025 – 54%
- Q1 2026 – 49%
These percentage figures are an average of the Southampton postcodes (as noted above).
For interest, if I break down the Q1 2026 figure by individual Southampton postcodes, it actually tells an even more interesting story…
- SO14 – 31%
- SO15 – 47%
- SO16 – 53%
- SO17 – 48%
- SO18 – 54%
- SO19 – 60%
Look at the difference between the postcodes!
So, what does a 49% “Sold STC to total stock” ratio mean for Southampton right now?
It places the local Southampton market at the higher end of a sellers’ market.
For Southampton Sellers
We are firmly in a market where patience, presentation and accurate pricing matter more than ever. Southampton buyers now have a lot more choice of homes to buy. Simply listing your property and hoping for the best will not cut it.
The Southampton homes that achieve a sale are those that enter the market with the right price from day one, have high-quality photography, floor plans, virtual/video tours, and marketing that stretches both online and old school offline.
Overpricing is the fastest way to stall/stop your home move. Of the U.K. homes that do end up selling, those homes that don’t get their asking price reduced (i.e. realistically priced from day 1) are 135% more likely to get a sale agreed on them (compared to those homes that get a price reduction). Also, they will take a third of the time to achieve a sale and are half as likely for that sale to fall through.
To add more weight behind those statistics, if a home hasn’t sold by the 12th week (because it is overpriced), it only has a 14.5% chance of selling.
Finally, if a home has a sale agreed on it within 25 days of it coming onto the market (i.e. it’s realistically priced), it has a 19 out of 20 chance (94%) of reaching exchange & completion (i.e. the homeowner moves). Wait until 100 days to agree a sale and the chances of getting that sale agreed to exchange & completion drops to 11 out of 20 (56%).
Getting the price right at launch is critical. Remember, 55.92% of the Southampton homes that have left Southampton estate agents books since the start of 2026 have the owners exchanged and completed (i.e. sold and moved) … the remaining 44.08% (596 Southampton homeowners to be exact), withdrew off the market, unsold and not moving to their forever home.
For Southampton Buyers
The pace of the market has eased compared to the madness of 2021 and 2022. That gives you breathing space to assess, compare, and homes negotiate a good deal. However, do not mistake calmer for easy. The best Southampton homes are still drawing strong interest and hesitation can cost you.
If you want to stand out, be prepared. A mortgage agreement in principle is no longer a nice to have, it is expected. It signals seriousness and gives sellers reassurance. Also, be willing to look slightly outside the obvious hotspots. Some of the best value in Southampton is sitting just beyond where everyone else is searching.
Final Thoughts on the Southampton Property Market
There is a quiet shift happening. Inflation is edging up again, interest rates are unlikely to fall dramatically in the short term, and the wider economic backdrop remains a little fragile. Yet the property market in Southampton is holding steady.
That makes pricing more important than ever. Get it right, and you give yourself a genuine chance. Get it wrong, and the market will quietly move on without you. Yes, you may not achieve the peak prices seen a few years ago. But equally, the home you are buying next will reflect that same reality.
If you are thinking of moving in the next nine months, or simply weighing up your options, let’s have a conversation. And if you are staying put, I would still be interested to hear your view on where the Southampton market goes next.
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Important TEXT HIGHLIGHTED IN PURPLE on Page 3 – clear floor plans, virtual/video tours .. remove if you don’t offer those.
