How to avoid being gazundered

You can't gazunder-proof a sale, but you can shrink the window it lives in. A gazunder almost always lands in the gap between offer accepted and contracts exchanged, so the single best defence is speed.

Get sale-ready before you list. Instruct your solicitor early and have your ID, title and property forms ready, so you can push to exchange in weeks, not months. The less time a buyer has to sit and reconsider, the less room to chip.

Then vet the buyer before you accept. Proof of funds or a mortgage in principle, their chain position, why they're moving. A chain-free, motivated buyer rarely turns at the last minute.

Price it right from day one too. An over-ambitious price that the lender's surveyor later down-values hands a buyer the perfect excuse to renegotiate.

And if it happens, don't panic. Most sellers who hold firm still complete at the original price. Saying no is not the deal-killer people fear.

The saying, time kills deals, is real and we have observed an enormous increase in the time it takes to get from sale agreed through to exchange of contracts.

The longer the conveyancing process takes, the more buyers observe new stock coming to market, price fluctuations and wider economic or political factors. This all contributes to buyers attempting to guzump, renegotiate on price or just walking away from a deal with little to no financial consequence.

Top tips to get the deal done quickly and avoid uncertainty is being legally prepared early, choosing a good professional team and to not get caught up over the small details.