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For at least a year it seemed to be a term that had disappeared from the lexicon. Yesterday gazumping was once more heard passing the lips of that endangered species, the estate agent.
On the day the Bank of England cut interest rates to their lowest level in British history, to combat the worst recession since the second world war, some estate agents in London were claiming that prospective property buyers were again entering into last-minute bidding wars to secure the home of their dreams.
Charles Peerless, manager of the West End and City branches of Winkworths estate agency, said: "We've had gazumping on two lower priced properties - around the £360,000 mark - in January. "We had abuse from the buyers because they think the market is dreadful and they couldn't believe they had been outbid."
Ed Mead, director of London agents Douglas & Gordon, said the company's Wandsworth branch had seen one buyer try to gazump another by £50,000 after a bidding battle pushed the price on a property from £800,000 to nearly £900,000. The vendor went for the lower bidder in the end as he was offering cash," he said.
Other estate agents were reluctant to use the g-word, but claimed they had seen some of those elusive green shoots of recovery.
The Guardian contacted more than 15 estate agencies around the country yesterday, and most reported a surge in inquiries from first-time buyers and an increase in sales in some areas.
Max Sowerby, an estate agent in Norfolk, said: "Before Christmas we had no customers coming through the doors, but in the last five weeks it's been so much better. We've been selling houses again."
But the upbeat message was not uniform across the country. Bill Preston, owner of Prestons estate agents in Porthcawl, south Wales, said: "Everything's still exactly the same as last year.
House prices haven't increased and they are still dropping. The only properties selling on the market are at a bargain price."
Since Christmas more people were trying to sell their homes, he said, but that didn't mean anything because buyers were holding off.
The message from the agents who were optimistic coincided with the monthly snapshot of the housing market from the Halifax, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, showing a surprise 1.9% rise in the cost of the average property last month.
But David Marsh from Marshall's estate agents in Penzance, Cornwall, said he did not believe the Halifax house price index. "Nothing like that is happening around here," he said.
"If people don't reduce their prices then they've got no hope of selling."
Martin Ellis, chief economist at the Halifax, warned that house buyers and home owners should not place too much weight on the monthly rise, claiming that it could be a "blip".
"Historically, house prices have not moved in the same direction month after month even during a pronounced downturn.
"For example, prices fell for seven successive months in 1989 but subsequently increased in three of the first ten months in 1990 even though the overall trend in prices was downwards."
The Halifax said that even after last month's rise, prices were still more than 17% lower than a year earlier, while separate data released yesterday found no evidence of a revival in demand for new cars, the second biggest household purchase after a home.
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