Welcome to Adair Paxton Insights – your trusted source for the latest news, expert analysis, and practical advice on the Yorkshire property market.
With over 165 years of experience as surveyors and property specialists in Leeds, we are uniquely positioned to offer valuable perspectives for buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, and investors.
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Secure your sale. Finish strong. What are your options for the end of the year?
In this blog:
- Can I still sell my house before Christmas?
- How long does it take to sell a house once an offer is accepted?
- Is it worth agreeing a sale in November or December?
- Why is my house sale taking so long?
- Should I wait until January to sell my house?
- What should I fix before selling my house?
- What should I do if my house isn’t selling?
- Does the 2026 Budget affect selling my house?
With less than two months of the year left, most homeowners thinking about a move ask whether it’s too late to do anything this year. It isn’t, but what you can realistically achieve depends on which of three paths you’re on.
The market this autumn is more selective than it was in the spring. Rightmove’s October figures show more homes for sale than at any point at this time of year since 2014, and the average two-year fixed mortgage rate has risen to 5.55%, from 4.25% earlier this year. Buyers are fewer and more careful. The ones still looking in November have a reason to move, and they’re comparing your home against the widest choice in over a decade.
Path one: push to complete before Christmas
This is realistic if your sale was agreed in September or early October and everything is moving. The HomeOwners Alliance puts a typical sale at 12 to 16 weeks from offer accepted to completion, and longer with a chain or a leasehold. A sale agreed last week almost certainly won’t complete before Christmas, and it’s better to know that now than in mid-December.
In north Leeds, the chain usually decides the timescale more than anything else. A family home in Horsforth or Roundhay is often one link in a chain of people moving up, each with a buyer and a sale of their own. A downsizer in Alwoodley or Moortown moving into an apartment may have no onward purchase at all. That’s why we look at the whole chain, not just your buyer, before we give you a date we think is realistic.
Late-year sales rarely stall at the searches. They usually stall at one of three points.
The buyer’s survey. A survey that flags damp, roof wear or an extension without building regulations sign-off can reopen the price weeks after the sale was agreed. We started as surveyors, so we’d rather you knew what a buyer’s surveyor is likely to raise before they do.
The lender’s surveyor. With mortgage rates higher, lenders are cautious. If the lender’s surveyor puts a lower figure on your home than the agreed price, your buyer has to find the difference or ask you to lower it. A price set on real sold evidence is far less likely to come unstuck here.
Missing paperwork. Building regulations certificates, certificates for replacement windows, boiler service records, guarantees for damp proofing or roof work. Every document your solicitor has to chase in December is a week you may not have. Find them now.
If you own a leasehold home, ask your solicitor to request the management pack from the freeholder or managing agent straight away. We manage residential blocks ourselves, and in a late-year sale a slow management pack is one of the most common reasons a completion date slips.
If a pre-Christmas completion isn’t realistic, we’ll say so early, so everyone in the chain can plan around a date that will actually happen. A move in the new year isn’t a failure. Letting the sale drift is.
We’ve set out how we keep a sale on track, from checking buyers can proceed to protecting the chain, in Serious buyers. Real results.
Path two: agree a sale now, move early in 2027
If you haven’t yet agreed a sale, this is often the strongest option. A buyer who agrees to buy in November has already decided to move. Their solicitor, lender and surveyor can work through the quieter weeks of December, you move in the first months of the new year, and you avoid launching into the January rush of new listings.
It suits two groups in particular. If you’re a family moving up in Horsforth, Adel, Cookridge or Bramhope, a sale agreed now means you could be in your new home by the spring, settled before the new school year in September rather than squeezing a move into the summer holidays. If you’re downsizing in Roundhay, Oakwood, Moortown or Alwoodley, you may be in a stronger position than you think: with little or no mortgage on your next home, higher rates matter less, and a seller without a long onward chain is exactly what serious buyers want.
What it takes is a price that works for today’s buyers, who can borrow less than they could in the spring. Rightmove estimates the rise in rates since February adds around £250 a month to a typical new mortgage. A price a buyer could have stretched to in April may now be out of reach.
That’s why our figures start with what has sold on comparable streets in the last three months, read by people trained to look at condition as well as bedrooms. Property portals also let buyers filter by price, so a home priced just above a common search limit can be missed by buyers who would otherwise have loved it.
As Rightmove put it in October, “competitive pricing from day one of marketing is critical.” An ambitious figure in November tends to sit unnoticed until it’s reduced in January, by which point the buyers it needed have moved on.
Path three: prepare now for a January launch
Some homeowners aren’t ready to sell this side of Christmas. If that’s you, use December to prepare, so your home goes live early in January rather than weeks into the year.
Start by looking at your home the way a buyer’s surveyor will, because that’s where negotiations are lost. Blocked gutters and the damp patches beneath them. Slipped or missing roof tiles. An old fuse box. A loft conversion or extension with no sign-off. Worn pointing on older stone homes. None of these are cosmetic, and each gives a buyer a reason to renegotiate after the survey. Fixing them, or having the paperwork to show you have, is worth far more than a new kitchen or a fresh coat of paint.
Then book a free market appraisal with us before Christmas. We’ll tell you where your price sits, what a buyer’s surveyor is likely to pick up and what’s worth fixing before you launch. None of it commits you to selling.
What if your home has been on the market since the autumn?
Then another small price reduction in December probably isn’t the answer. A run of reductions tells buyers the first figure was wrong. What works is a proper reset: a price based on what has actually sold nearby in the last three months, new photographs and a plan for the buyers who are active now.
Our blog on the property superstitions that cost Leeds sellers money explains why another reduction rarely fixes it. If you’re not sure why your home hasn’t sold, request a second opinion before the new year.
Does the Budget change anything?
Not for most sellers. The Budget on 28 October left stamp duty unchanged, so your buyer pays the same rates they have since April 2025. There was nothing on mortgages either: the rates buyers face are set by lenders and the Bank of England, not the Budget. The new government equity loan for first-time buyers, with the first sales expected in April 2027, applies only to new-build homes, so it won’t change demand for most homes in north Leeds. If you’re weighing up letting your home instead, tax on rental income rises from April 2027, to 24% for basic-rate taxpayers. Our guide to what the Budget means for Leeds landlords sets out the detail.
A plan, not a deadline
We’d rather tell you to wait than rush you into a sale that isn’t right. If your home needs significant work, your onward plans are uncertain or the timing doesn’t suit your family, the new year is the sensible choice. What matters is deciding deliberately, rather than letting another year slip by without a plan.
We’ve been part of this city since 1859, and we started as surveyors. Our figures come from what has sold on your street, not what the neighbours are asking, and if the honest answer is to wait, we’ll tell you.
Budget 2026: what the rental income tax rise means for Leeds landlords
In this blog:
- What did the 2026 Budget change for landlords?
- What will the tax rate on rental income be from April 2027?
- How much more tax will I pay on my rental income?
- Does the property income tax rise apply to limited companies?
- Will I still get tax relief on my buy-to-let mortgage interest?
- Can I put the rent up to cover the tax rise?
- How can landlords protect their rental income after the Budget?
- What do Leeds landlords need to do before April 2027?
From April 2027, landlords will pay more tax on their rental income. The rates rise to 24% for basic-rate taxpayers, 44% for higher-rate taxpayers and 49% for additional-rate taxpayers.
That is four percentage points more than you pay now. Half of the rise was announced in last year’s Budget. The other half was added in the Budget on 28 October. Most of the coverage focused on the newest part, so it’s easy to underestimate the full change.
What has changed
At the moment, profit from letting property is taxed in the same way as a salary. From April 2027 it gets its own, higher rates. The simplest way to picture it: for every £1,000 of profit your property makes after costs, you’ll pay £40 more in tax than you do today.
The change applies to landlords who own property in their own name or jointly with someone else. Property owned through a limited company is taxed differently and isn’t affected.
If you have a mortgage on the property, the tax credit you receive for the interest rises to match the new basic rate. That reduces the impact slightly, but it doesn’t cancel the rise out.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility expects this and other recent changes to reduce what landlords earn and, over time, to push rents up.
April 2027 is a busy month for Leeds landlords
The tax rise isn’t the only thing happening in April. The same month, the new national landlord register opens for property in Leeds. Every landlord will need to register themselves and each property they let, there’s a yearly fee for each property, and in time you won’t be able to advertise a property without a registration number. Our blog on landlord registration in Leeds explains what you’ll need.
That comes on top of the Renters’ Rights Act, which has already changed how lettings work this year. Tenancies now run on with no end date, landlords can no longer end one without giving a reason, and tenants can leave with two months’ notice. The government is also looking at extending Awaab’s Law, which sets deadlines for fixing problems such as damp and mould, to privately rented homes.
Each change is manageable on its own. What matters is that they all arrive at once, and they hit some properties harder than others.
What to do before April
Work out what each property really earns. Not the rent, but what’s left once the mortgage, insurance, repairs, fees and tax have come out. Most landlords know their rent to the pound. Far fewer know this figure, and it’s the one the Budget has changed.
Check whether your rent is where it should be. You can raise the rent once a year by giving your tenant formal written notice, often called a Section 13 notice, at least two months in advance. If your tenant thinks the increase is too high, they can ask a tribunal to decide what the property would let for on the open market. So any increase needs to be based on what similar properties nearby are letting for, not on your tax bill. If you haven’t reviewed the rent in the past year, doing it early in the new year means an increase can be in place by the spring.
Talk to your accountant now, rather than after April. Some landlords will be wondering whether to move their property into a limited company. That comes with its own costs, and the right answer is different for everyone. It isn’t tax advice.
Hold, reshape or sell
For most landlords, the Budget won’t change whether letting is worth it. For some, it will tip the balance. There are three sensible ways to respond.
Hold, and tighten the numbers. If a property still works after tax, the job is to protect that return: a rent set on evidence, costs kept in check and as little time empty between tenants as possible.
Reshape. Landlords with more than one property often find that one of them is doing most of the damage. It’s usually the one with the lowest rent for its size, the highest repair bills or the poorest energy rating. Selling that one and keeping the rest can leave you with a smaller but stronger portfolio.
Sell. If a property no longer works for you, our sales team can talk you through the options, with or without a tenant in place. There are rules on when you can ask a tenant to leave in order to sell, so speak to us before you decide.
Guy Roberts, who heads our lettings and management team, puts it plainly: “Over the last few months, the message from our landlords has been consistent. There’s more administration and red tape than ever, and further tax rises only add to that.” It’s a fair point, and the impact won’t be the same everywhere in Leeds. A mortgaged city centre apartment with a service charge to cover has far less room in its numbers than a family house in Horsforth or Roundhay owned for years with little or no mortgage, and a shared house in Headingley or Hyde Park has more running costs and compliance than a single let. That’s why we look at each property on its own numbers.
Know your numbers before April
The landlords who come through April in the best shape won’t be the ones who reacted fastest to the headlines. They’ll be the ones who know, property by property, what each one really earns and what would improve it.
That’s what a rental review gives you. Our lettings team will check your rent against what similar properties nearby are letting for, which is the same evidence a tribunal would use, and tell you plainly whether there’s room to move. If you’re a fully managed landlord, we already hold the certificates and tenancy details the register will ask for. And because we started as surveyors, if a property would serve you better sold, our sales team will tell you what it would achieve, with or without a tenant in place.
Serious buyers. Real results. How we secure the right outcome for your Leeds home.
In this blog:
- How many house sales fall through in the UK?
- How does an estate agent check whether a buyer is serious?
- Should I accept the highest offer on my house?
- What happens in the first four weeks after a sale is agreed?
- How does an estate agent manage a property chain?
- My home has been on the market for months. Should I relaunch?
A sale agreed is not a result. Nearly one in four agreed sales in the UK never reaches completion, and the government’s own estimate puts the cost of those collapses at around £400 million a year in wasted fees. Behind each one is a seller who thought it was done.
A real result is the day the keys change hands at the price you agreed, in the timescale you planned for, with a buyer who was always going to get there. That is what this autumn’s campaign is about, and it is what we have been doing for sellers across north Leeds since 1859. Here is how.
What a serious buyer looks like right now
The buyers active in Leeds this autumn are not browsing. The casual interest went home with the summer. What is left are people with a reason. A school place secured for September. A relocation date. A sale already agreed on their own home. A family that has outgrown the house and needs the extra bedroom before the baby arrives.
They have spoken to a mortgage adviser. They know what they can borrow. They have been watching the market long enough to know what homes in Horsforth or Roundhay have actually sold for, which means they know an ambitious price when they see one. They are fewer than in the spring, but they are decided, and when the right home appears they move.
The job is to put your home in front of those buyers, and to tell them apart from everyone else.
How we qualify buyers before they view
Not every enquiry becomes a viewing with us. Before anyone walks through your door, we have asked the questions that tell us whether they could actually buy your home. Do they have a mortgage agreement in principle, and for how much. Are they selling, and if so, is their sale agreed or are they still on the market. Are they in rented accommodation with a notice period, or a first-time buyer with nothing to sell. Where is their deposit coming from.
That is not about turning people away. It is about knowing who is standing in your hallway. A viewing from someone who has not yet put their own home on the market is a different thing from a viewing from someone who exchanged last week. Both might offer. Only one can proceed.
Why the highest offer is not always the one we recommend
When offers come in, most sellers look at the number. We look at the number and everything behind it. A buyer offering £5,000 more with a mortgage not yet applied for and a home not yet sold is worth less to you than a buyer offering the asking price with funds confirmed and no chain. The first might get there in six months if nothing goes wrong. The second will get there in twelve weeks.
We set that out plainly and let you decide. Sometimes the highest offer is also the strongest. Often it is not. The sellers who end up back on the market in January are usually the ones who took the biggest number without asking what sat behind it.
The first four weeks after a sale is agreed
Industry data shows 38% of all fall-throughs happen in the first four weeks after a sale is agreed. After twelve weeks the risk drops sharply. The early period is where sales are won or lost, and it is where most agents go quiet.
We do the opposite. The memorandum of sale goes out the same day. We confirm the buyer’s solicitor is instructed and has the funds on account to start. We confirm the survey is booked, because a survey that happens in week two is a problem you can manage and a survey that happens in week seven is a problem that has already cost you five weeks. We check the mortgage application has been submitted rather than merely intended. And we call the buyer’s agent, the solicitors and you every week with a straight account of where things are.
None of that is dramatic. All of it is the difference between a sale that completes and one that quietly unravels while everyone assumes somebody else is dealing with it.
Protecting the chain
Most sales in north Leeds sit in a chain. Your buyer is selling to someone who is selling to someone else, and the whole thing moves at the pace of its slowest link. You cannot control the other links. You can make sure someone is watching them.
We speak to every agent in the chain, not just the one below us. We find out where the delays are before they reach you. When a survey raises a question three sales down, we know about it the same day and we know what it means for your timescale. When a buyer goes quiet, we find out why. The sellers who feel their sale is out of their hands are usually the ones whose agent stopped asking.
Pricing for a real result
All of this starts with the number your home launches at. A serious buyer knows the market. Price above it and they do not negotiate, they move on, and the people who do view are the ones who cannot tell the difference. Price on what comparable homes have actually sold for in the last three months and the serious buyers come in the first fortnight, when competition between them is what gets you your price.
We would rather lose an instruction than win it with the wrong number. It is the single most important decision in the whole process and we will give you our honest view of it before you commit to anything.
If your home is already on the market
If your home has been listed since the spring or summer and is not yet under offer, the autumn buyers are looking straight past it. A listing that has been live for months carries a story, and buyers write it themselves. Another reduction will not fix that. A proper reset will. The right price, new photographs, a fresh launch and a plan built around the buyers who are active now rather than the ones who were active in May.
That is a conversation we are glad to have with any seller, whoever they are currently listed with.
Real results, not real promises
The homes across north Leeds that have completed through us this summer did so in a market where more than a third of listings nationally did not sell and nearly a quarter of agreed sales fell apart. They got there because the buyers were qualified before they viewed, the offers were judged on more than the number, and someone stayed on the phone from sale agreed to the day the keys changed hands.
If you are thinking of selling this autumn, or you are on the market and not where you hoped to be, a free market appraisal is where the honest conversation starts.
Seven property superstitions that cost Leeds sellers money. And the one thing that is actually true.
In this blog:
- Should I price my home high and leave room to negotiate?
- Is autumn a bad time to sell a house in Leeds?
- Should I accept the first offer on my house?
- Should I wait for interest rates to fall before selling?
- Does a new kitchen add value before a sale?
- Why has my house been on the market for months without selling?
- Is it bad luck to complete on Friday the 13th?
It is the season for things that go bump in the night, so this seems like the right moment to talk about the beliefs that haunt the Leeds property market. Most of them are passed on from neighbours, relatives and people who last sold a house when the market was a very different place. They sound sensible. They feel like caution. And every autumn they cost sellers across north Leeds real money.
We have been selling homes in this city since 1859, which means we have seen every one of these in action. Here are the seven we hear most, why each one is wrong, and the one thing underneath all of them that is actually true.
Superstition one: price high and leave room to negotiate
This is the most expensive belief in property. The theory is that buyers always offer under the asking price, so you build in a cushion. The reality is that buyers with a saved search see your home the day it appears, compare it against everything else in Horsforth or Roundhay at that price, and decide in seconds whether it is worth a viewing. An inflated figure does not invite negotiation. It invites them to look at the next one.
Rightmove’s data shows more than a third of homes listed nationally are not going on to sell. In our experience the pattern is almost always the same. An ambitious price, a quiet first fortnight, a reduction in week six, and buyers reading that reduction as confirmation the original number was wrong. The cushion you built in becomes the discount you end up giving.
Superstition two: nobody buys after September
Buyers took a breath over summer. They have not gone home. Rightmove recorded a 5% rise in demand after the government confirmed there would be no property tax changes at the Budget, and the buyers active in October are the ones with a reason. A school place secured. A relocation date. A sale already agreed on their own home. They are fewer than in spring, but they are more decided, and they are comparing your home against the widest choice for a September in twelve years. That is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to be ready.
Superstition three: the first offer is never the best
Sellers turn down early offers because the speed feels suspicious. Surely if someone offered in the first week, somebody else will offer more in the third. Usually they do not. The buyer who moves in the first fortnight is the one who has been waiting for exactly your kind of home, has their mortgage agreed and has already seen the alternatives. Once that first wave of interest passes, the people left are more cautious and offer accordingly. We have watched sellers reject a strong early offer and accept a weaker one three months later more times than we would like.
Superstition four: wait until interest rates come down
Wanting cheaper borrowing before you move is entirely reasonable. It is also not something you control, and it is not something anyone can reliably predict. Every month spent waiting for a decision from the Bank of England is a month of serious buyers in Cookridge and Adel looking at somebody else’s home. What you do control is how well your home is priced and presented for the buyers who are active right now. That is where the result comes from.
Superstition five: a new kitchen adds value
It adds cost. Every buyer has their own taste, and the kitchen you choose is not the one they would have chosen. The same is true of bathrooms and of most work done in a hurry to impress a viewing. What does make a difference is preparation rather than renovation. Decluttering. The door that does not close properly. The garden while it still looks like a garden. Before you spend anything on your home ahead of a sale, ask us. We would rather tell you now than watch you find out in the spring.
Superstition six: a house that has been on the market for months must have something wrong with it
This one is believed by buyers, not sellers, and that is exactly why it matters. A listing that has been live since May with two reductions behind it carries a story, and buyers fill in the gaps themselves. Damp. A dispute. A survey that found something. Almost always the truth is simpler. The price was wrong at launch and nobody reset it properly. If your home has been on the market since spring, the answer is not another £5,000 off. It is a relaunch with the right price, new photographs and a plan for the buyers who are active now.
Superstition seven: never complete on Friday the 13th
Plenty of people avoid it. Rightmove’s data shows Friday the 13th has been the quietest completion day of any Friday since 1996, and it has been that way for long enough that it is clearly not a coincidence. There is one coming in November. Complete on it if you like. Nothing will happen to you, and the removals company will almost certainly have a slot.
The one thing that is actually true: your first two weeks decide your sale
This is not a superstition. It is the pattern behind every one of the beliefs above.
When your home is new to the market, the buyers with a saved search see it the day it appears. The people who have been looking for months finally get something they have not already rejected. That fortnight is where competing offers come from, and competing offers are what get you your price.
Overprice and you waste it. Turn down the early offer and you are negotiating with whoever is left once it has passed. Wait for a better month or a lower rate and you launch into the same fortnight later, with more competition around you. Spend on a kitchen instead of getting the price right and you have changed the thing buyers care least about.
Get the first two weeks right and most of the superstitions take care of themselves.
Serious buyers are not superstitious
The buyers we are working with this autumn know what homes in their area have sold for in the last three months. They know when a price is ambitious and when it is fair. They know a fresh listing from a stale one. They do not need convincing that north Leeds is where they want to live. They need a home that is priced honestly, presented properly and handled by people who keep the sale moving once the offer is in.
That is what we do, and we have been doing it for long enough to know which of the old beliefs to keep and which to leave in the past. If you are thinking about selling, or your home is on the market and not moving, a free market appraisal is where the honest conversation starts.
Landlord registration is confirmed. Here is what Leeds landlords need to do before 14 July 2027.
In this blog:
- When do landlords in Leeds have to register on the new database?
- What is the Register your rental property service?
- What information do I need to register my rental property?
- How much does landlord registration cost?
- Can my letting agent register my property for me?
- Can I advertise a rental property without a registration number?
- What happens if I do not register as a landlord?
On 9 September the government confirmed the dates, the fee and the detail for England’s new landlord register. If you let a property anywhere in Leeds, you will need to be on it by 14 July 2027. This blog sets out what the register is, what it will ask of you, what it costs, what changes for advertising and what to do between now and the spring.
What the register is
Officially it is the Private Rented Sector Database. The service you will use is called Register your rental property. It is a national record of every landlord and every rented home in England, created by the Renters’ Rights Act, and it is designed to give councils a single place to see who is letting what and whether the basics are in order. Tenants will eventually be able to check whether a landlord is registered before they sign.
It is not optional and it is not a one-off. You register yourself, you register each property, and you keep the entries current for as long as you let.
When it applies to Leeds
The service launches on 15 December 2026 in the West Midlands and then opens one region a month. Yorkshire and the Humber goes live on 15 April 2027. From that date, landlords with property in Leeds have three months to register, so the deadline is 14 July 2027.
Two things are worth knowing about the timing. The deadline follows the property, not the landlord. If you live in London and let a flat in Headingley, you work to the Yorkshire date, not London’s. If you live in Leeds and let a house in Manchester, you work to the North West date, which is a month later. And you do not have to wait for April. Once the service is live in December, landlords in any region can register ahead of their own deadline. For anyone who prefers to get it done, that is an option.
What you will need to register
There are two registrations. The first is you. Name, date of birth, correspondence address and contact details, or the company name, Companies House number and director details if you let through a limited company.
The second is each property. Address. Whether you own it freehold or leasehold. Property type and number of bedrooms. How many people and how many households live there. The rent and how often it is paid. Whether bills are included. Whether the property is licensed. And your safety information, which means the current gas safety record, the electrical installation condition report and the energy performance certificate.
Once registered you receive a landlord registration number and a property registration number for each home you let. Those numbers are what you will need for advertising, and they are what councils and, in time, tenants will check.
What it costs
£65 per property, renewed every year. For a landlord with one property that is a small line in the accounts. For a landlord with six it is £390 a year, every year, plus the time to keep six entries current.
What changes for advertising
This is the part most landlords have not thought through. Once Yorkshire is live, no property in Leeds can be marketed without a valid registration number on the listing. That applies to landlords advertising themselves and to letting agents advertising on their behalf. An agent cannot put a property on Rightmove, in the window or in a brochure until the landlord has registered it.
For now the register covers properties that are already let or become occupied during the rollout. The government has said further legislation will extend it to empty properties, which will need registering before they can be advertised at all. So the sequence is going to become register first, then market. Not the other way around.
What happens if you do not register
Councils get access to the data and a legal duty to enforce. Penalties for failing to register start at £7,000 and can reach £40,000 for repeat or deliberate breaches. Separately, under the wider Act, a landlord who is not registered will not be able to seek possession of their own property through the courts. If you ever need the property back, being off the register closes that door.
Only you can register. Your agent cannot do it for you.
This is the part that catches landlords with agents off guard. As the rules currently stand, the registration itself has to be completed by the landlord. Your letting agent cannot set up your account, cannot register your properties on your behalf and cannot hold the registration numbers for you.
What an agent can do is make sure you are never scrambling. The certificates to hand. The dates checked. The tenancy details confirmed. And a prompt when something changes and the entry needs updating. That is the difference between registering in twenty minutes and spending an evening hunting for a gas safety record from 2025.
What to do between now and April
Find your certificates and check the dates. The gas safety record is annual. The electrical report lasts five years. The EPC lasts ten. If any of them expire before July 2027, book the renewal now rather than discovering the gap when you are trying to register.
Check whether your property needs a licence. Parts of Leeds are covered by selective licensing and the register will ask.
Make sure the tenancy details are right. Who lives there, how many households, what the rent is and how often it is paid. If the agreement says one thing and the arrangement is another, sort it before it goes on a government record.
Where Adair Paxton fits
For landlords on a fully managed agreement with us, the preparation is already done. We hold the gas, electrical and energy certificates. We track the renewal dates. We know the tenancy details because we manage the tenancy. When April arrives, registering will be a matter of entering information we have already put in front of you, and when something changes afterwards we will tell you what needs updating and when.
For landlords who self-manage or who are with us on rent collection only, the register adds one more standing obligation to a list that has grown considerably since May. If you would like a straight view of where your property stands, what will need renewing before July and whether your current arrangement gives you the coverage you need, a rental review is the place to start.
And if the register is the point at which letting one of your properties stops making sense, we can help with that too. Our sales team will give you an honest view of what it would achieve, and whether holding or selling is the better decision for you.
Autumn buyers are back. How to sell your Leeds home well this September.
In this blog:
- Are buyers really back after summer, or is that what agents say every September?
- Asking prices fell in August. Does that mean my Leeds home is worth less?
- Should I wait until after the Budget or until mortgage rates come down?
- How much does my asking price matter in the first two weeks?
- Is it worth fitting a new kitchen before I sell?
- If I want to be moved in before the New Year, when do I need to list?
- What makes Adair Paxton different from other estate agents in north Leeds?
If you have been waiting for the right moment to sell, we should be straight with you. It has arrived, and it does not look like the Septembers you might remember. The buyers who paused over summer are back, and there are more of them than there were in July. They are also walking into the widest choice of homes available at this time of year since 2014.
That changes what you need to do. Listing in September used to carry you a long way on its own. This year it gets you to the starting line alongside everybody else, and what happens next depends on decisions you make in the fortnight before your home goes live.
That is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to be deliberate. Here is what we would tell you if we were sitting in your kitchen.
Why September alone no longer sells your Leeds home
Some of the hesitation that was holding buyers back has cleared. Rightmove recorded a 5% rise in buyer demand in the weeks after Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July, helped by his confirmation that stamp duty will not change at October’s Budget. If you were holding off to see what the Budget might do to your move, you already have your answer.
What has also changed is how much you are up against. The number of homes for sale is at a twelve year high for the time of year, and the average asking price of a newly listed home fell 2% in August, the largest August drop since 2018. That figure is about how sellers are pricing, not what homes are worth. It tells you the people coming to market alongside you are pricing to compete from day one, and that your buyer will see four or five other homes the same week they see yours.
What your home in Horsforth, Adel or Roundhay is actually worth
The national headlines are dragged down by the south, so they are telling you very little about your own street. Asking prices across northern England are up 1.5% on August last year, while London is down 3.1%. Closer to home, the average Leeds property bought with a mortgage reached £250,000 in May, up 3.8% over twelve months, with semi detached homes up 4.7%.
If you own a semi in Horsforth, Cookridge, Adel, Roundhay or Moortown, that last figure is the one that applies to your home. Your value has not gone backwards. What has changed is how hard you will have to work for the attention of the buyer who wants it.
Your asking price will decide your sale
Almost everything about how your sale goes is settled in your first two weeks. That is when your home is new, when buyers with a saved search see it the day it appears, and when the people who have been looking for months finally get something they have not already rejected. Viewings in that fortnight are what create competing offers, and competing offers are what get you your price.
Price ambitiously and you lose that window. Every quiet week afterwards makes your listing look older to buyers who have already scrolled past it, and the reduction you make in November will not win it back. Buyers read a price drop as confirmation that your first figure was wrong, and they offer accordingly. We have watched a good many sellers accept less in the winter than an accurate September price would have brought them.
So when we give you a market appraisal, it is built on what comparable homes on your streets have achieved in the last two or three months. Not what your neighbour is asking. Not what the market was doing in 2024. If the figure you were hoping for is not the one that will get you sold, we will say so, because the alternative costs you more.
What to do before your home goes live
- Get your photographs taken while the gardens still hold and the light is good. By late October the same house photographs noticeably worse, and your listing lives with those images for months.
- Make sure your listing is written for your buyer. What a family moving to Adel for the schools needs to know is not what a buyer looking at a city centre apartment needs to know.
- Instruct your solicitor now rather than when an offer arrives. It takes weeks out of the process at the far end, when weeks are hardest to find.
One thing worth saying plainly. If you are thinking about a significant improvement before you sell, a new kitchen or a new bathroom, ask us before you commit. It rarely returns what it costs, because every buyer has their own taste and the kitchen you choose is not the one they would have chosen. We would rather tell you that now than watch you spend the money and find out later.
If you want to be moved before the New Year, sell now
A typical purchase takes twelve to twenty two weeks from offer accepted to completion, longer with a chain or a leasehold. Launch in early September, agree a sale in October, and you have a realistic path to being in your next home before or shortly after Christmas. Launch in late October and you are looking at February.
Waiting for borrowing to get cheaper is unlikely to help you either. The base rate has sat at 3.75% since December, three members of the Bank of England committee voted to raise it in July, and average two year fixed mortgage rates are back above 5%. The direction of travel is not currently downwards.
Why sellers across north Leeds choose Adair Paxton
We started as chartered surveyors in 1859 and we still price your home the way surveyors do, from evidence rather than optimism. That is what you will notice at the appraisal, and it is why our sellers tend not to be the ones reducing in November.
It also means we can look at your whole position rather than one transaction. If you are weighing up whether to sell or let, or you own more than one property, sales, lettings, management and professional work all sit under one roof here, so you get a straight answer rather than a referral.
Book a market appraisal
If you are selling this autumn, the conversation worth having is the one before the photographs are taken. We will give you an honest view of what your home should launch at, what is worth doing first, what is not worth doing at all, and a realistic timeline from here.
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