If you’re a homeowner in Sawbridgeworth thinking about selling, brace yourself for a bit of uncomfortable truth.

There is a growing gap in our town between what Sawbridgeworth home sellers want and what buyers are actually willing to pay. And the evidence for this is laid out, month after month, in cold, hard numbers.

Since the summer of 2020, we’ve been tracking two key numbers: the average asking price of homes coming to market in Sawbridgeworth, and the average sale price of homes that exchanged and completed. The results are striking and eye-opening.

In 2025 so far, the average asking price of the homes coming onto the market in Sawbridgeworth has been £550,500. But the average price of a Sawbridgeworth home that’s actually sold and completed is £541,600. That’s a 1.6% difference.

And no, this isn’t about a property crash or Sawbridgeworth sellers taking a hit on their asking prices. This is about what sells versus what sits on the market.

It’s Not That Sawbridgeworth House Prices Are Falling. It’s That High-Priced Sawbridgeworth Homes Don’t Sell as Well

Let’s be very clear. This 1.6% gap doesn’t mean house prices have dropped by 1.6%. It simply shows that Sawbridgeworth homes at the higher end of the market are much less likely to sell. They get listed, they linger, and they often withdraw unsold. Meanwhile, lower-priced Sawbridgeworth homes tend to fly off the shelf.

It’s a classic case of saleability versus ambition.

In 2020, the gap between average asking and average sale price in Sawbridgeworth was -11.3% (£464,000 asking vs £523,000 selling).

By 2021, it was 10.8%. Rose slightly to 12.8% in 2022, was 10.9% in 2023, 15.9% in 2024, and now we’re at  1.6% in 2025.

(Sawbridgeworth is CM21).