How long to sell your house?

But the national figure masks a wide regional difference. In greater London properties sell quickest, currently averaging under one month. But in Britain's most sluggish housing markets, around the north east of England, vendors should expect a wait of ten weeks.

A similar pattern applies to how much vendors should expect to have to cut their asking price to achieve a sale. Currently, the national "discount" - the reduction from asking price to actual sale price - is 3.4pc. Again this has narrowed significantly as the market has improved. At the beginning of 2013 the discount was almost 7pc and, in 2011, almost 10pc.

Region	How long it will take to sell...	...and how much you're likely to have to cut the price
East Anglia	5 weeks	4.1%
East Midlands	7 weeks	4.1%
Greater London	4 weeks	1.3%
North East	10 weeks	4.1%
North West	8 weeks	4.8%
South East	4 weeks	2.3%
South West	6 weeks	4.1%
Wales	5 weeks	3.9%
West Midlands	8 weeks	4.3%
Yorks & Humberside	9 weeks	4.3%
National	6 weeks	3.4%

^{Source: Hometrack, June 2014}

And from the buyer's point of view?

Separate data, also relating to June 2014, but this time from property portal Rightmove, revealed the proportion of buyers admitting to having paid the asking price, less than that price - or above it. Findings married closely with the Hometrack data.

Again in areas of high demand, rising prices and short supply, greater proportions of recent buyers said they paid what the vendor wanted or more. So in London, for example, almost one in two of those purchasing in the past 12 months paid the asking price or above. In Wales the equivalent figure was just 18pc.

^{Source: Rightmove. June 2014}

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