Making an offer on a house

Making an offer on a house is the moment the buying process stops being research and becomes a negotiation, but in England, Wales and Northern Ireland it is not the moment anything is legally settled. An offer is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged¹. Until then, either you or the seller can change your mind, renegotiate or walk away, whatever has been said or agreed in principle.

That cuts both ways. It gives you the freedom to offer below the asking price, adjust your offer after a survey or pull out entirely if something worrying emerges. It also means the seller can accept a higher offer from someone else at any point before exchange, which is known as gazumping. There is nothing illegal about gazumping, and the purchase price of a house is only legally settled when contracts are exchanged².

The practical machinery around an offer matters too. The estate agent you deal with is acting for the seller, not for you², and the legal work from having an offer accepted to exchange of contracts can take up to seven weeks³. This page explains how offers are made, how much to offer, what happens between acceptance and exchange, and how Scotland's system differs.

Get a mortgage in principle before you make an offer

Before making an offer it is worth knowing what a lender will actually lend you, and the way to find out is a mortgage in principle. This is an indication from a lender of the amount it may be prepared to lend, based on your income, outgoings and credit record. It is not the same as a mortgage offer, which is a formal written offer to you from a bank or building society to lend an approved amount against a property⁶. The full offer only comes later: your lender will arrange a valuation of the property and check the application against its lending criteria before issuing it⁷.

A mortgage in principle gives an offer credibility. Sellers and agents take an offer more seriously when the buyer can show a lender has already looked at their finances, and in a competitive situation it can be the difference between two otherwise similar offers. It also protects you from offering on a property you cannot actually borrow enough to buy.

The deposit sits alongside the mortgage. You will usually need to pay a deposit of at least five per cent of the house price to the seller⁸, with the mortgage covering the rest. The bigger the deposit, the more mortgage deals are generally available, but five per cent is the usual floor. If you are working out what you can afford, remember the one-off costs on top: a solicitor, an independent surveyor, a mortgage arrangement fee, a Land Registry fee and Stamp Duty may all need to be paid as part of buying a house or flat⁹. The guides on how much deposit you need and the costs of buying a house cover these in detail.

How to make an offer through an estate agent

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, offers on most homes go through the estate agent. It is worth being clear about whose side the agent is on: as the seller pays the estate agent for their services, the estate agent is acting on the seller's behalf². The agent's job is to get the best outcome for the seller, which is why the asking price is a starting point for negotiation rather than a fixed price.

Offers can be made verbally, in person or over the phone, but it is sensible to follow up in writing so there is a record of what was offered and when. Once made, the offer must be handled properly: agents must pass on all offers promptly in writing, and must reveal any personal or financial interest they have in offers made on the property⁴. This duty applies even to offers the agent thinks the seller will reject, and even to offers made after an earlier offer has been accepted, because until exchange the seller is free to consider a higher bid.

You will not get much help from the agent on what to offer. The agent cannot legally tell you how much past offers were for, but they may hint at how close they were to the asking price¹⁰. Asking how long the property has been on the market, whether there have been other offers, and why the seller is moving can all inform your offer without the agent breaking any rules.

If the seller accepts your offer, they are responsible for drawing up a legal contract to transfer ownership¹, and your solicitor or conveyancer takes over the detailed work. The page on conveyancing explains what happens next, and how to buy a house sets the offer in the context of the whole process.

Deciding how much to offer: when a lower offer makes sense

How much to offer depends on the property, the local market and your own budget, but there are some working rules. If you are not in a competitive situation, consider going in slightly lower, perhaps 5% below your upper limit, so you have room for upward negotiation¹⁰. Your upper limit should be the most you can afford, allowing for the deposit, the fees and the mortgage a lender will actually offer, not simply the asking price.

The asking price is the seller's opinion of what the property is worth, and it can be wrong in either direction. Evidence of what similar properties actually sell for is more useful. If a property is on sale for £500,000 but similar properties sell for £425,000 in the area, offering under the asking price is the sensible course rather than a gamble¹¹. Properties that have been on the market a long time, sellers who have already found somewhere else to live, and chains where the seller needs a quick sale are all situations where a lower offer is more likely to be entertained.

There is also a financial reason not to overpay. The lender will arrange its own valuation of the property before issuing the mortgage offer⁷, and if that valuation comes in below the price you have agreed, the lender may only lend against the lower figure, leaving a gap you must fill from your own funds. Offering a price the evidence supports reduces the risk of that gap opening up. If you are selling as well as buying, one way to gauge your own property's value is to invite three local estate agents who have recently sold similar properties to value it, and go with the middle valuation or calculate an average¹¹.

Bidding wars: sending your best and final offer

When several buyers want the same property, the agent may ask for best and final offers, or the seller may run a more formal process. Two terms come up. A tender is where the seller invites written offers for a property, which have to be received by a set closing date⁶.

In a best and final round, the practical questions are what your true maximum is and what will make your offer attractive beyond price. A lender's agreement in principle, no chain or a short chain, flexibility on timing and a solicitor already instructed can all matter to a seller weighing similar figures. Because you cannot see the other bids, the discipline is to offer the most you are genuinely willing and able to pay, and not a pound more.

It is worth remembering what a winning bid actually is at this stage. Even the highest bid in a sealed bids process is not legally binding: either party could still back out at any point before contracts are exchanged¹⁰. Winning a bidding war secures the seller's acceptance, not the property. The money spent on surveys and legal fees after a successful bid is therefore still at risk until exchange, which is a reason to keep those early costs as low as the process allows.

Your offer and the lender's valuation

Once your offer is accepted and you apply for the mortgage, the lender arranges its own valuation of the property. Your mortgage lender may need a separate valuation to confirm the value of the property⁸. The lender instructs the valuer, and the borrower generally pays for the valuation as part of the mortgage application¹². It is done for the lender's purposes, to make sure the property meets its criteria for lending¹².

This is the point where your offer meets an independent opinion of value. A mortgage valuation is for the benefit of the lender: its scope is limited and it only provides information for your lender, to check the property will act as viable security for the loan¹¹. Always get your own house survey before buying a home¹¹. The comparison of a HomeBuyer Report or Building Survey explains the options.

If the valuation comes in lower than your agreed price, the lender may reduce the amount it will lend, and you must then find the difference from your own resources, renegotiate the price, or withdraw. The ombudsman has published a case study of exactly this situation: a buyer complained about the valuation of a property he wanted to buy, carried out by an independent surveyor, after the low valuation left him unable to get the mortgage he needed¹³. Complaints about valuations can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman if the firm cannot resolve them¹², and the page on what happens if the valuation is lower than your offer covers the options in detail.

After your offer is accepted: surveys and contracts

Acceptance moves the process from negotiation to legal work, but it does not lock anything in. If the seller accepts your offer, they are responsible for drawing up a legal contract to transfer ownership¹. As the buyer, you arrange and pay for searches and surveys¹, and your solicitor or conveyancer examines the title, raises enquiries and prepares everything needed for exchange.

The buyer's costs at this stage are real and are lost if the sale falls through. As well as the surveyor's fee there may be a solicitor, a mortgage arrangement fee, a Land Registry fee and Stamp Duty to budget for⁹. Because none of this is recoverable if the seller accepts a higher offer before exchange, it is worth instructing your solicitor early but holding off on the more expensive steps until the sale looks secure.

The timescale is worth knowing in advance. From having an offer accepted to exchange of contracts can take up to seven weeks³. What fills that time is the searches, the survey, the mortgage offer and the back-and-forth of enquiries between the two legal teams, plus the alignment of any chain above or below you. The narrow guide on how long buying takes after an offer is accepted breaks the stages down.

Gazumping: an accepted offer is not binding until exchange

Gazumping is what happens when a seller accepts your offer and then accepts a higher offer from a different buyer before contracts are exchanged. It is unpleasant but lawful: there is nothing illegal about gazumping, and the purchase price of a house is only legally settled when contracts are exchanged². Until exchange, the seller is not obliged to stick with you, however firm the acceptance felt.

The exposure is not just emotional. By the time gazumping typically happens, you may have paid for a survey, searches and legal work, and none of it is recoverable from the seller. There are limited ways to reduce the risk. Moving quickly to exchange shortens the window in which you can be gazumped. Some buyers and sellers agree a lockout or exclusivity arrangement, and where such an agreement exists and you are gazumped during the period it covers, you can sue the seller for breach of contract². Not all sellers will sign one, and the basic rule remains that an offer is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged¹.

The same freedom cuts in your favour too. If your survey reveals problems, you can renegotiate the price or withdraw, and if your circumstances change you can walk away before exchange without a legal penalty. Sellers know this, which is why some accept offers cautiously. If you are making an offer before selling your own property, you might find the seller will only provisionally accept your offer, and continue marketing their property until you are able to progress with the purchase¹⁰. The guide on how to avoid being gazumped lists the practical steps, and what subject to contract means explains the phrase you will see on the memorandum of sale.

Exchange of contracts and completion day

Exchange of contracts is the moment the deal becomes real in law. The exchange of contracts happens when the buyer's and seller's legal representatives swap signed contracts, and the buyer pays the deposit⁵. The exchange of the contracts to buy the property is the point where the sale is legally binding⁸. From that moment, pulling out has consequences: if you withdraw after exchange, you may lose the deposit you put down and could be sued by the seller¹⁰. The same applies in reverse, so a seller who withdraws after exchange can be sued for the loss caused, and the buyer may be able to keep the deposit².

The deposit paid at exchange is often 10% of the purchase price of the home, but it can vary³. Responsibility for the property shifts at exchange as well: it is the buyer's responsibility to insure the property from the date of exchange of contracts and to have repairs carried out², so buildings insurance must be arranged before exchange rather than before completion. The guide on buildings insurance when buying covers this.

Completion is the day the money and the keys change hands. Your solicitor or conveyancer manages the legal process: once everything is agreed, you exchange contracts, set a completion date and get the keys⁷. Completion often takes place around two weeks after exchange, but this is flexible and you can agree a convenient date with the seller⁵. From exchange of contracts to completion can take up to four weeks³. In Scotland, the tax position follows the same logic: in the majority of cases the effective date of a land transaction is the date the transaction is completed¹⁴. The pages on exchange of contracts and completion and the gap between exchange and completion go further, and whether you get your deposit back if a sale falls through answers the question buyers ask most often.

Reservation deposits on new build homes

New build homes work differently from the outset. Instead of you making an offer, the builder makes an offer to sell the property to you, and this will come with a list of conditions⁵. Builders usually ask for a reservation fee or deposit to take the property off the market while you arrange the mortgage and the legal work. This is usually between £500 and £1,000, and it is repayable if the sale does not go ahead³.

The terms matter more than the amount. Before paying a reservation fee, check in writing what happens to it if the sale falls through, whether the builder will refund it in every circumstance or only some, and how long the reservation lasts. A reservation fee secures the property for a period, but it does not make the purchase binding on either side, and the builder's offer document will set the conditions that eventually do.

The deposit for the purchase itself is a separate thing. A gifted deposit, meaning money given to a homebuyer to help them buy a property⁶, is common on new builds, and lenders will want evidence of where it came from, covered in the guide to gifted deposits. If you are part-exchanging your current home with a builder, there can be tax consequences: where a house building company buys a home from a person buying a new home from it, the purchase by the company can be relieved from Scottish Land and Buildings Transaction Tax if certain conditions are met, one of which is that the existing home is sold to the house building company in total or partial consideration for the new home¹⁵. The guide to buying a new build home covers the whole process.

Making an offer in Scotland works differently

Scotland has its own system, and the differences change how you make an offer. Rather than setting a high asking price and negotiating downwards, sellers in Scotland usually advertise properties as offers around or offers over a certain figure⁵. Your solicitor must send your offer in writing to the seller's solicitor, and only offers submitted via a solicitor will be considered⁵, so there is no direct negotiation with an estate agent in the way there is in England and Wales.

The timing of commitment is different too. In Scotland, a binding contract will be in place when all the conditions of an offer have been accepted and you and the seller have concluded the missives¹⁰. Until missives are concluded the deal is not binding, but once they are, withdrawing has legal consequences, unlike the English position before exchange. The narrow guide on when an offer on a Scottish home is legally binding explains the mechanics.

Information also flows differently. Before you buy a house in Scotland, the seller will give you a Home Report¹⁶, and once you have found a home you will be asked to provide a copy of the valuation, which will usually be provided in the Home Report given by the home's seller¹⁷. That means the valuation is available to you before you offer, rather than arranged by your lender afterwards. Scottish schemes have their own rules on price: under the Open Market Shared Equity scheme, a buyer taking an existing home buys a 60 to 90% share of the cost¹⁸, and under the First Home Fund a buyer can offer more than the valuation of the property, but must make up the difference in cash if they do so¹⁹. The guides to buying a home in Scotland, closing dates and shared equity schemes in Scotland cover all of this.

Complaints about an estate agent

If an estate agent has mishandled your offer, ignored a bid, failed to pass it on or treated you unfairly, the first step is a written complaint to the agent itself. Agents must pass on all offers promptly in writing⁴, so a failure to do so is a clear breach of their duty to the seller, and it can also harm you as the buyer. If you are not satisfied with the agent's resolution, or eight weeks have passed since you first made the complaint, you can refer the matter to the agent's independent redress scheme⁴. All estate agents handling residential sales in England must belong to one, and the scheme can look at the complaint and award redress where it finds in your favour. The page on complaining about an estate agent sets out the routes.

Some property-related complaints go elsewhere. Where the complaint involves a firm the Financial Ombudsman covers, the route is different: the ombudsman can look at complaints about mortgage valuations and surveys¹², and it publishes case studies such as the buyer who could not get a mortgage after a low valuation¹³. Where a complaint about credit broking reaches a credit broker, the broker must forward the complaint to the lender and inform the consumer that it has been forwarded²⁰. The ombudsman's quarterly data shows the volume of such work: 33 complaints about credit broking were opened in the first quarter of 2026/27²¹. For complaints about the buying process more widely, including surveyors and conveyancers, see complaining when buying a home goes wrong.