Comment: 'Why home buyers should dream big but offer small in London's current property market'

Are you trying to buy a home at the moment? I – still – am (also still welcoming reader entries to the find-Prudence-a-house contest) but one trick is offering promise.

As an eternal optimist, I’ve always set my search at a price point a degree higher than I can actually afford for both rental and sales properties and it has often proved a rewarding strategy.

After a bit of friendly discussion I might end up paying a tiny bit more than I initially budgeted for, but I have almost always ended up living somewhere significantly nicer than anywhere advertised in my actual price bracket.

In my current search I had set my alerts £50,000 above what I can afford, knowing that as a chain-free buyer I have a strong negotiating hand right now. But a few weeks in to a still fruitless search, a friend sent a link to a house a full £150,000 over budget.

I was sceptical but contacted the agent, laying bare my upper spending limit. Rather than laughing, he booked me in for a viewing right away.

Agents say pricing is difficult at the moment so they’re letting sellers take a chance and see what they can get, while knowing which of their clients are likely open to offers.

Land Registry due diligence showed that this particular guy, a landlord, bought for less than half the current asking price 15 years ago.

Should I decide to make an offer, he would have literally nothing to lose by accepting – double your investment in the bank is worth more than triple it in your imagination after all.

The risk run by these ‘try it and see how lucky you can get sellers’ is that many of them won’t even come up in searches of potential buyers, who wouldn’t dream of tempting themselves with such wildly overbudget properties. But some people obviously reckon it’s worth a shot.

This won’t work with every home – really desirable places are scarce and will still attract a (modest) bidding war.

But according to Zoopla, London sellers are accepting an average £25,000 off their asking price at the moment. Some will go much lower.

Dream big and offer low. You never know what might work.