INCREASING numbers of home-buyers and sellers are playing a "dangerous waiting game" as they try to second-guess property prices.

More homeowners than ever are selling up then waiting before they buy another home in the hope of snapping up a bargain if prices fall.

FPDSavills managing director Rupert Sebag-Montefiore said: "We have been witnessing a steady increase in the number of sellers prepared to step off the property ladder."

The trend is particularly prevalent amongst young families moving out of London and looking to re-locate to Dorset and other rural counties.

With cash in their pockets, and "chain free" they consider themselves in a strong position to secure their new home at an optimum point in the market cycle. But the reality however is somewhat different. Playing the waiting game is risky.

"Taking into account buying and selling costs, a property in the prime market would have to fall by a full 10 per cent before a buyer can re-enter the market at the same point at which they left," said Mr Sebag-Montefiore.

"We are increasingly coming across buyers who've stepped off the property ladder and are now concerned that the market is working against them - it has continued to rise.

"These are often cash buyers who, faced with keen competition for good properties, are finding that they are in fact bidding against others in a similar situation and inadvertently bidding the market upwards.

"Concern among these buyers must surely be mounting - re-entering the property market may not be quite so straightforward as they'd first imagined."

There are "few prospects" of a 1980s style property crash on the horizon but rather a situation of steady - albeit slower - price growth, forecasts FPDSavills, which has an office at Wimborne.

Consequently there is a "growing urgency" among the new breed of wait and see players who now need to re-enter the market as soon as possible.

"The waiting game is often a dangerous one to play and only those with the strongest of nerves should consider taking part," said Mr Sebag-Montefiore.

First published: Sept 8