The advice every seller is hearing
At this point in August, almost every conversation seems to end with the same sentence: “Let’s wait until September.”
Sometimes that is perfectly sensible. Families return from holiday, schools restart, diaries become more predictable and buyers who have spent the summer watching the portals finally arrange viewings. September is a real market—not an estate-agent invention.
But it is not magic.
A date in the calendar cannot correct an asking price buyers do not believe, photographs that fail to hold attention or a property that has already spent months being quietly rejected online. More buyers come back in September, but so do more sellers. Attention increases; competition for that attention increases with it.
Mark’s view: September is an opportunity to launch properly. It is not a reason to postpone a difficult decision.
London buyers have more choice than they have had for years
Rightmove’s August index shows London asking prices down 4.4% in the month and 3.1% compared with last year. The capital now has its greatest choice of homes for sale since 2010, and the average London seller is taking 73 days to secure a buyer.
Some of that monthly fall is seasonal. August is rarely the moment when sellers feel most powerful. But the level of available stock matters because buyers no longer have to forgive the merely acceptable. They can compare condition, lease length, service charge, outside space, street, layout and price before deciding which homes deserve a viewing.
This is why the blanket instruction to “hold out for September” can be misleading. If the property is one of five credible alternatives, the return of demand helps all five—not only yours.
The real question is not whether September will be busier. It is whether your property will be the one buyers choose when it is.
The first fortnight carries more weight than sellers realise
A new listing has a short period when it is genuinely new. Buyers receive alerts, agents call their best applicants and curiosity is at its highest. That first wave gives us the cleanest evidence of whether price and presentation are working.
The danger is using those buyers to test a number nobody can defend. If they look and do not enquire, the listing may still be visible in September, but it no longer feels new. The market has already formed an opinion.
Sellers are often told there is no harm in trying higher because “we can always reduce.” Technically, that is true. Commercially, it is incomplete. A later reduction can create activity, but it cannot recreate the exact tension of several buyers discovering a well-positioned home at the same time.
Interestingly, Rightmove says nearly three-quarters of homes that have sold this year found a buyer without an asking-price reduction. That does not mean sellers should price cheaply. It means the opening position matters. The strongest launches give buyers enough confidence to engage while leaving the agent room to create competition.
When waiting for September does make sense
I would wait when the extra time is being used to improve the product.
That might mean finishing works, resolving an obvious legal question, preparing the lease and management information, photographing the garden properly, producing a better film or agreeing a launch plan that reaches beyond the portals. A short delay is valuable if the property returns to the market materially stronger.
I would also wait where the likely buyer is genuinely absent in August. Certain family-house searches, particularly those driven by schools and relocation, do regain urgency once people are back in London. Exceptional homes are not immune to the market, but scarcity gives them more control over timing.
What I would not do is wait four weeks while changing nothing. The same property, at the same price, with the same campaign, does not become more compelling because the month changes.
Relaunching is different from reducing
A reduction changes the number. A relaunch changes the story.
If a property has been sitting for months, I would look at the campaign as a whole: the lead image, opening line, film, floorplan, viewing feedback, search bracket and the buyers who were nearly persuaded but did not act. Sometimes the price is the problem. Sometimes it is the only part of the strategy anyone has bothered to question.
The best relaunches create a clear reason to look again. They may involve a meaningful new price, but they should also involve new creative, a sharper audience and direct follow-up with buyers whose objections can now be answered. Simply changing the figure on Rightmove and waiting for the algorithm is not a campaign.
Mark’s view: If a seller is going to accept the disruption of a relaunch, it should feel like one.
Houses and flats still require different thinking
The phrase “the London market” hides more than it reveals. A rare family house in Chelsea, Notting Hill, Clapham or Dulwich is not competing in the same way as a leasehold flat with a rising service charge and unresolved major works.
Needs-driven buyers will still act for the right house. Another child, a school deadline, a garden or an extra bedroom creates pressure that a market index cannot fully capture. But even those buyers are comparing the cost of improving a home against today’s borrowing and building costs.
Flat buyers are generally less forgiving because uncertainty affects both affordability and future resale. If the service charge, lease, management position or planned works are unclear, the answer is not automatically a larger advertising budget. The uncertainty has to be removed or reflected honestly in the price.
September can bring more viewings to both markets. It will not make buyers stop doing the maths.
What I would do now
If I were planning a September launch, I would use the final days of August to answer five questions:
1. What has actually sold—not merely launched—against this property? 2. Which homes will the same buyer see immediately before or after ours? 3. Is the asking price designed to generate a conversation or simply flatter the seller? 4. Does the creative make the property feel distinctive within three seconds? 5. Is every obvious legal, leasehold or condition question ready to be answered?
If I were already on the market, I would be more direct. Has the property had serious viewings? Have any buyers come close? Is the feedback consistent? And if the price changed tomorrow, would the existing marketing suddenly become good enough?
The autumn market will create opportunities. But the homes that benefit will be those giving buyers a clear reason to act—not those simply waiting for the season to do the agent’s job.
If you are considering launching or relaunching a London property this September, send me the postcode. I will give you a confidential view on the price, the competition and what I would change before going back to the market.
