OIEO (Offers in Excess Of): What Does it Actually Mean?
OIEO on a listing means the seller wants offers above the stated price. It doesn't say how far above, it doesn't promise that an offer over it will be accepted, and it isn't a valuation.
Three different things get squashed into that one label: the price on the listing, the offer you make, and the point at which anyone is legally committed. Keep them apart and OIEO stops being confusing.
Article updated: September 2026
What does OIEO Stand For?
OIEO stands for offers in excess of, and "in excess of" just means more than. It always comes attached to a number. OIEO £320,000 reads as offers in excess of £320,000, meaning the seller is asking for offers above that figure rather than at it.
On the portals it is one of a set of price qualifiers. Rightmove describes a qualifier as a short phrase that appears before the property price and tells buyers whether the price is fixed or flexible. OIEO is the flexible kind, and the flexibility points upward.
The other qualifiers you will see next to it are OIRO, offers over, guide price, fixed price and POA. OIRO means offers in the region of, so the words invite offers around the figure rather than above it. Offers over is the normal Scottish wording, and Scotland runs a different system, covered further down. Guide price means the figure is an indication of what the seller expects, not a fixed asking price. It is used on ordinary listings as well as auction ones, although Rightmove's page says a listing with the word "auction" in its description is set to guide price automatically. POA means price on application, so the figure is not shown at all. Fixed price means what it says.
OIEO Explained
The OIEO meaning on a property listing is three separate things squashed into one line, so read them separately.
The label. Offers in excess of £320,000 is the seller's stated expectation. It comes from the seller's side of the deal, and the label itself does not say how the figure was arrived at. It is not a valuation, and it is not a floor written into any contract.
The offer. Whatever you put forward is an offer. £320,001 is in excess of £320,000 as a matter of arithmetic, so it matches the label. Whether it is anywhere near what the seller had in mind is a different question, and the label does not answer it. An offer of £310,000 is below the label, and it is still an offer.
The commitment. GOV.UK's selling-a-home guidance states that an offer is not legally binding in England and Wales until contracts are exchanged, and that negotiations may take place between seller and buyer in the meantime. An accepted offer over an OIEO figure is no different from any other accepted offer in that respect. Until exchange there is no binding sale contract.
There is no rule about how much extra an OIEO figure asks for. The seller chooses the label and the buyer chooses the offer. Run the £320,000 example through that: the label says above £320,000, an offer of £325,000 is above it, and the seller can still say yes, say no, or come back with another number.
Guide price and OIRO sit next to OIEO on the same list and the difference is in the words. "In excess of" means above the figure, "in the region of" means around it, and "guide" means an indication of it. Each one tells you which direction to look from the figure, and none of them tells you what to pay.
Why OIEO is Used in Property Prices
The label does not say why. The one thing it proves is that this seller has chosen a flexible price rather than a fixed one, and that the flexibility points up. Some listings say more in the description, and the agent may tell you more if you ask. The four letters and the figure on their own do not.
What OIEO does do, whatever the reason behind it, is set the number everything else gets measured against. Offers get called "over" or "under" it, the agent reports them to the seller against it, and buyers anchor on it. That is a lot of weight on a figure that came from one side of the deal.
In Scotland, offers over is the standard way to price a home. The Scottish Government explains the system behind it on mygov.scot. Its buying guide says most homes there are sold through blind bidding, where the seller asks for offers over or around a minimum price. In England and Wales the same "offers over" idea appears on a listing without that process behind it.
Will You Pay Too Much with an OIEO Price?
The figure and the value are two different numbers, and the label only gives you one of them. Price against value is one of the checks in our guide on how to do due diligence on property.
The OIEO figure is what the seller wants offers above. The value is a judgement about this home, and the evidence for it is what comparable homes actually sold for. GOV.UK's search sold property prices service covers completed sales in England and Wales from HM Land Registry data, and points Scottish and Northern Irish buyers to separate services. The asking figure never appears in that record. Only the price that completed does.
A sold price is evidence, not the answer on its own. It shows what one buyer paid for a different home on a different day. How alike the two homes are, and how recent the sale was, decide how much weight it carries, which is the judgement a surveyor makes when they value a home. In England and Wales the OIEO label carries no valuation with it. The listing may say more, and a seller may have had a valuation done, but the label on its own is one figure from the seller's side until you, or a surveyor you instruct, put a number against it. Scotland is different, because on an ordinary resale a Home Report valuation sits beside the offers-over figure, as the Scotland section explains.
The figure can sit under the going rate for the street or above it, and OIEO reads the same either way. Whether you are looking at a below market value property or one priced above its neighbours, the label does not tell you which. The sold-price evidence gives you a view on it, and a valuation, if you commission one, adds a surveyor's opinion of what the home is worth. A survey of the home's condition is a separate report and does not put a value on it unless a valuation is included. None of that tells you what the seller will accept.
Is OIEO the Same as 'Offers Over' in Scotland?
Same words, different system. Offers over in Scotland is the normal way to price a home, and it comes with a process around it that OIEO in England and Wales does not have.
mygov.scot's guide to buying a home says some Scottish homes are sold at a fixed price, but most go through blind bidding. In blind bidding, the seller asks for offers over or around a minimum price. The guide adds that what you pay depends on how many other people make an offer. The figure is what the seller asks for. Offers can come in around it as well as over it, so it is not a hard floor. Where several buyers note interest, the seller can set a closing date, a deadline by which all written offers must reach the seller's solicitor. The Scottish Government's closing date guidance for sellers puts it as a choice, and says the seller does not have to accept the highest offer, or any offer at all.
Two other things come with the Scottish system. A Home Report, which mygov.scot describes as a single survey and valuation, a property questionnaire and an energy report, must be given to a buyer within nine days of asking for it. There are exceptions. New homes sold off-plan or to a first occupier do not need one, and a seller can refuse a copy to a buyer they do not believe is seriously interested or able to pay. On an ordinary resale, though, the Scottish buyer sees a surveyor's valuation next to the offers-over figure and can compare the two on the spot. And the offer itself goes in as a letter from your solicitor. The two solicitors then negotiate the conditions through letters called missives, and once both sides agree the terms, in the page's words, "you have a binding contract". Pull out after that point and the same page says you will be liable to the seller for damages.
South of the border, GOV.UK's guidance for sellers has buyers making offers verbally or in writing, through the agent where there is one, with the offer not legally binding until contracts are exchanged. No solicitor's letter is needed to make the offer, and there is no Home Report system, so no valuation arrives with the listing unless someone commissions one.
So an offers-over figure in Glasgow and an OIEO figure in Manchester both say "bid above this". The Scottish one usually arrives with a Home Report valuation and may go to a closing date if several buyers note interest, and the sale becomes binding once the missives are accepted and the terms agreed. The English one is a label, then an offer, and a sale that becomes binding at exchange of contracts.
How Much OIEO Should You Offer?
There is no published rule, and none of the official sources set one. Rightmove's qualifier page says the price is flexible. GOV.UK's offers guidance says an offer is not legally binding in England and Wales until contracts are exchanged. The Scottish buying guide says what you pay depends on how many other people make an offer. Not one of them puts a percentage on it. The "add a few per cent on top" figures you see on some agent websites are those agents' suggestions, and no official source backs a particular number.
What the label leaves you with is the arithmetic from the section above. Any figure over the label matches it, whether by £1 or by £30,000. The seller decides which, if either, is enough, and the label does not tell you what that number is.
The sold-price record gives you evidence for what comparable homes went for. A valuation is a surveyor's opinion of what this one is worth, weighed from that kind of evidence, and it is not the same thing as a survey of the home's condition. That evidence and that opinion are what an offer gets measured against, whether the home is for living in or for letting. The rent on any investment property in UK towns and cities is set by the local market, so the price you pay is what decides the yield. The qualifier plays no part in that sum.
Can You Offer Less Than an OIEO Price?
You can put one in. The label invites an offer over the figure, but nothing about it makes a lower offer invalid. GOV.UK's estate agents guidance says agents must pass on offers for a home right up to when contracts are exchanged. The National Trading Standards guidance for estate agents published in June 2026 gives two exceptions. A seller can instruct the agent in writing that offers of a certain type do not need to be passed on, and an agent under a statutory duty can delay passing one on. So a lower offer can always be made, and outside those two exceptions, the agent has to pass it on.
Whether the seller acts on it is another matter, and the label gives you their opening position. The label does not tell you what other buyers have offered or what the seller has turned down, so an offer under the figure is a question put to the seller, and the answer comes back through the agent.
For a buy to let property for sale, an offer below the label is the same kind of offer as one above it. GOV.UK's guidance has neither one binding anybody in England and Wales until contracts are exchanged, and the agent's duty to pass it on is the same whether the buyer plans to live in the home or let it.
Marketing Property for Sale with an OIEO Price
Seen from the buyer's side, OIEO is a decision the seller made when the home was listed. Rightmove's qualifiers are chosen from a fixed list, and some carry restrictions. POA and "Offers Invited" hide the price, and Rightmove says Trading Standards guidance means they are only allowed on commercial and new-build listings. "From" is limited to new homes and commercial property because, following Committee of Advertising Practice guidance, it may be misleading on residential listings. OIEO has no such restriction. It goes on an ordinary house, and the figure beside it is whatever the seller's side chose to put there.
Two rules then apply once the home is listed. The agent has to keep passing on offers up to exchange, unless the seller has told them in writing that offers of a certain type need not be passed on. That written instruction is described in the National Trading Standards guidance for estate agents. So a seller who lists OIEO can still receive the offers underneath it. And once contracts are exchanged in England and Wales, GOV.UK's conveyancing guidance says the agreement to sell and buy is legally binding, and usually neither side can pull out without paying compensation. That is the moment "offers in excess of" stops being a wish and the agreed figure becomes the price.
I spent time as an agency negotiator and valuer early on, to learn the seller's side of a sale as well as the buyer's, and the plain way to read an OIEO line is as the seller's starting position. It is not a valuation and it is not a promise about what they will accept. The label tells you where the seller is starting from. The sold-price evidence, and a valuation if you get one, give you a view of what the home is worth. Neither one tells you what the seller will take, and the offer is what finds that out.
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