How To Find & Buy Off-Market Properties

Off-market property is property offered for sale away from the open market. No Rightmove listing, no Zoopla advert, no board outside. The seller deals quietly with one buyer or a small group of buyers instead, often through an agent's or a sourcer's own list.

It's a smaller part of the market than most people think. But for an investor it's the part where you can buy without a queue of other bidders, and sometimes for less.

Article updated: October 2026

I've bought a good number of properties off-market over the years. The buying has never been the hard part. Finding them is.

What Is Off-Market Property?

An off-market property is one the owner is willing to sell without putting it on the open market. It might be offered to a few buyers an agent already knows, sold direct to someone who wrote to the owner, or passed to an investment agent who offers it to their own buyers instead of the portals.

Most homes sell "on the market". They go up with an estate agent, appear on the UK property portals, or get entered into an auction. Off-market covers everything that changes hands without that public step.

Off-market isn't the same as off plan property. Off-plan means buying before a building is finished. An off-plan flat can be sold off-market, but the two words describe different things.

How Much Property Is Sold Off-Market?

Less than the hype suggests, at least for ordinary homes. Hamptons' research found 7.4% of homes in Great Britain sold off-market in 2023, down from 9.6% in 2022. Below £1 million the 2023 figure was 6%.

The top end is a different story. About one in three homes over £1 million sold off-market that year, and over half of those above £2 million, according to the same research. Wealthier sellers care more about privacy, so the share climbs with the price.

For buy-to-let, where most purchases sit well below £1 million, off-market deals are the minority. That's why they're hard to find, and why the investors who find them regularly have a way of doing it rather than relying on luck.

Why Do Sellers Sell Off-Market?

From the sellers I've dealt with over the years, the same four things came up again and again:

• Privacy. No board, no listing, no neighbours knowing their business.
• Speed. A quick, certain sale to a buyer who's ready to go.
• Simplicity. Fewer viewings, no rounds of offers and counter-offers.
• Trust. One buyer they can deal with directly, who does what they say.

Some owners also use a quiet sale to test a price before going public. Others had no plan to sell at all until the right letter landed on the doormat.

Top price isn't on that list. In my experience, a seller going off-market will sometimes give a little on price in return for speed, certainty or privacy, and that's where buyers can find value.

Are Off-Market Properties Cheaper?

Sometimes, but not automatically.

With fewer buyers involved there's usually less competition pushing the price up, and a seller who wants a fast or discreet sale may accept less. That's how a lot of below market value property comes about. I've always bought below market value, and off-market has been one of the main ways I've done it.

It cuts both ways, though. With fewer bids and no public asking price to compare against, it's easy to pay too much and never know. Recent sales of similar homes nearby give you something to measure against. In England and Wales, the government's sold price search shows what they went for, though size, condition and the exact street all make a difference.

How to Find Off-Market Properties

Most of the off-market properties I've bought came from direct advertising: leaflet drops in streets I liked, adverts in local newspapers, and paid adverts on Google.

Every one of those costs something before a single lead comes in. Leaflets cost time. Newspaper adverts cost more money but get going faster. Pay-per-click costs money on every click. And when the calls do come, plenty won't fit. Wrong type of property, wrong street, or a seller who wants more than the numbers allow.

It's a needle-in-a-haystack approach. It works, but it takes patience and a budget, and the routes below each trade time against money in a different way.

Direct advertising and leaflet drops

Pick the streets where the houses suit what you buy, then put leaflets through doors, run an advert in the local paper or pay for online adverts aimed at owners in that area. Being specific helps. "Tenanted terraces bought, landlord to landlord" gets a different response from "we buy any house".

Response rates are low and some replies will be from people testing what their home is worth. The ones that do turn into deals tend to be owners who wanted a quiet, simple sale.

Estate agents' buyer lists

Some sellers ask their agent to find a buyer quietly, and the agent rings the buyers already on their books before anything goes online. Agents remember buyers who can move: cash or finance in place, a solicitor ready, no chain. Being on that list, and being known for completing, is how a lot of off-market deals reach investors.

Landlords selling with tenants in place

Plenty of landlords want out but don't want the hassle of an empty property and a normal sale. Selling with the tenant in place keeps the rent coming in until the day of completion. Letting agents and landlord networks often know who's thinking of selling long before a board goes up.

Developers and investment agents

Developers sometimes sell units off-market, either right at the start of a scheme or the last few at the end. These usually go through investment agents, who offer them to buyers on their lists rather than putting them on the portals.

Word of mouth

Tell people you buy property: friends, colleagues, your solicitor, local tradespeople. Be specific about what you're after. A builder who's just quoted to tidy up a tired rental is often the first to hear that the owner wants to sell.

Going direct to the owner

If one particular house catches your eye, you can find out who owns it. In England and Wales, a title register from HM Land Registry costs £7 and usually shows who owns the property, what it last sold for and whether there's a mortgage on it, according to gov.uk.

It gives you a name, not a phone number, so the usual approach is a letter. It's slow and most letters go unanswered, but for empty or run-down houses it's sometimes the only way in. If a letter promotes a service, the ICO's guidance on marketing by post says that putting someone's name on it needs a lawful basis for using their personal data, and that you must stop if they ask you to.

Auctions don't count as off-market, because the lots are advertised to anyone. They're a different route with a fixed timetable, covered in our guide to buying a property at auction.

Off-Market Property Agents and Sourcers

A sourcer, sometimes called an investment agent or property finder, does the finding for you. They run the advertising, keep in touch with agents, landlords and developers, and bring buyers a short list of deals that have already been looked at.

The deals shown above come through Residential Estates and aren't on Rightmove or Zoopla. Joining is free, so investors can see them and compare them with what's advertised on the open market. You can browse current buy to let property for sale, or see the wider range of investment property in the UK we work with.

Not every sourcer works the same way. Some charge the buyer a fee for each deal, so it's normal to ask how they're paid before going further. HMRC lists property finders among the businesses that must register for money laundering supervision, in its registration guide. And an estate agent dealing with residential property must belong to The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, under the redress scheme rules. Which of these apply depends on the work a sourcer does, and a sourcer can tell you which registrations and memberships cover their business.

If you're curious how the job looks from the other side, our guide to becoming a property sourcer walks through it.

How to Buy an Off-Market Property

Legally, buying off-market is the same as any other purchase: solicitors, searches and a mortgage if you need one. In England and Wales it ends with exchange and completion. In Scotland the contract is formed through missives, letters between the two solicitors. A private sale can mean fewer competing buyers, but the seller, any agent involved and the legal process still shape the price and the timetable.

Work out what it's really worth

Start with what similar homes nearby have actually sold for, then look at what comparable homes are advertised at on the portals today. Size, condition and the exact street all move the figure. An independent valuation from a surveyor working to RICS valuation standards gives you a figure before you commit.

Check the property and the paperwork

A survey tells you what you're buying. If the property is already let, the tenancy agreement, deposit paperwork, rent history and safety certificates tell you what you're taking on. With fewer buyers looking, it's down to you to spot any problems.

Have your money lined up

Sellers who go off-market usually want certainty, so cash, or finance agreed before you offer, makes you a far easier buyer to say yes to. If you're borrowing, the lender's valuer decides what the property is worth to them, and that figure can come in below the price you agreed.

Negotiate with the seller's reasons in mind

Off-market doesn't mean there's no negotiating. It means negotiating with the seller's real reasons in mind. A seller who wants a quick, quiet sale may take less for a firm completion date. One who simply wanted to test the water may not move at all.

What Does "Off the Market" Mean on Rightmove?

This one catches a lot of people out. When a home on Rightmove goes "off the market", it only means the advert has come down. It has nothing to do with off-market deals.

Adverts come down for all sorts of reasons. The sale may have completed. The seller may have pulled out, or moved to a different agent. Rightmove also removes some listings itself: a home marked Sold STC or Under Offer for eight months is taken down automatically, according to Rightmove's help pages.

So does off the market mean sold? Not necessarily. It means the home is no longer being advertised there. It could be sold, withdrawn, or about to come back with another agent.

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