Buyers are achieving discounts of up to 10% across the country, a new report from a property search company claims.

The quarterly review of house buying trends from County Homesearch reveals that the company’s professional buyers are managing to achieve frequent discounts in the region of 5% – but sellers in such areas such as Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Bath, Bristol and Somerset are for some properties having to drop prices by as much as 10%.

Across the UK the property search agents report flat house prices of 1% to 2% with some marginal drops in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Surrey. Almost all the company’s homefinders say correctly priced homes are selling quickly except in East Anglia.

All 22 offices report that clients are being choosier and whereas five years ago, in an over-heated market when it was a sellers’ market, they had to make snap decisions – today’s buyers are being more selective and taking longer to commit to a purchase.

Managing director, Jonathan Haward said: "There has been a significant change in pattern from the start of the year. House prices across the country are showing near zero growth and our home searchers are generally being able to negotiate discounts from the asking price."

"That said, there is still a shortage of good homes for sale as sellers have sat tight and as a result our clients have become more choosy and think they have the luxury of more time to make a decision. As a result, good houses costing in excess of £500,000 that have been realistically priced are snapped up more quickly than in the mass market."

In some parts of the country there is less pressure in the market than in others. This has resulted in the length of time between the agreement of a deal and exchange of contracts taking place in a typical transaction being stretched from 24 working days a year ago to about 36 days now. "This is nothing alarming but just indicative of a market that is in some parts proving to be a bit sloppy," said Mr Haward.