Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Property118. Read the original article for full details.
Real Liverpool listing shows slow, costly conventional sale
A Liverpool property listed with a high street agent in October 2025 has had its price reduced three times, falling from a guide price of £170,000 to offers over £140,000. At the time of writing, the property — described as beautifully presented with modern fittings, no onward chain and an EPC rating of D — is neither sold subject to contract nor under offer.
The article, written by David Coughlin of Landlord Sales Agency, uses the listing as a real-world example. He stresses the piece is not a criticism of the selling agent, described as "a very good one", and prices have been rounded so the property cannot be identified, though figures remain within £100 of the real numbers.
Illustrative costs of a 15-month sale
If a buyer were found now, allowing roughly 12 to 16 weeks for conveyancing, completion would fall around mid-January 2027 — 15 months after the property was first listed. The article notes that, according to stats cited, 33% of high street sales do not complete.
To give the conventional sale the best possible case, the author assumes the tenants left voluntarily with no possession costs, no money was spent on redecorating or fittings, and no gap between tenants leaving and marketing beginning. Costs such as utilities, empty-property insurance, maintenance, security, gardening, cleaning and travel are excluded, as is any value placed on the landlord's time.
On those assumptions, the illustrative costs over 15 months include:
- More than £10,100 in mortgage payments, based on Rightmove's affordability calculator estimate of approximately £675 per month
- Approximately £2,800 in council tax, with empty properties facing a 100% surcharge once vacant for more than 12 months (12 months' council tax in the postcode is approximately £2,675)
- Estate agent fees of £2,500
- Solicitor fees of £1,000
That brings total illustrative costs to approximately £16,400, leaving a calculated profit of £140,000 minus £16,400 — £123,600. The author cautions that the seller's actual position is unknown; they may have cleared their mortgage and face much smaller costs. The exercise is intended to encourage sellers to think about hidden costs rather than estimate them.
Hypothetical tenanted sale comparison
The article sets out a hypothetical Scenario 2: what if the tenants had remained in the property while it was being sold? In this scenario, the landlord approaches Landlord Sales Agency before asking tenants to leave. The agency says it sells rental property before evicting tenants and helps tenants move rather than chasing them through the courts if a buyer wants vacant possession.
The source article's comparison is incomplete at the point of the seller's estimate, so no figures for the hypothetical scenario can be reported here.
Relevance for agents and clerks: the piece shows how carrying costs — mortgage payments, council tax surcharges on empty properties and professional fees — accumulate during prolonged vacant sales, and notes the EPC rating of D and advertised potential rental yield of up to 9% as marketing points used in the original listing.
Source: Property118