How do I get a higher price for my property?

How do I get a higher price for my property?

Short answer: A higher sale price comes down, above all, to how many people see your property. The more people who see it, the better the odds that the one buyer willing to pay the most for it comes to view it and makes an offer. Professional photography and paid social media advertising can multiply that number tenfold — and deliver an average of about 2.4% more on the sale price. What you do yourself as a seller — cleaning, clearing out and fixing the small things — matters, but it counts for less than the marketing does.

Why is marketing the biggest single factor?

If your property is only listed on the Icelandic property portals, with no advertising behind it, you are relying on one thing: that the buyer happens to be on a property site during the exact days your listing is new, and that they are searching for the right number of rooms, the right postcode and the right price range.

Everyone else never sees it. People who are "just having a look", people who had given up on the search, people who would have moved to the neighbourhood if the right property had appeared — that group is many times larger than the group actively searching in that particular week. And the highest offer is usually hiding in it.

When a property is promoted with paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram, the field Baldur fasteignasali (licensed estate agent) specialises in, it is put in front of people in the right area who were not searching that day. That is the difference between 200–300 views and 2,000–4,000 views.

That difference shows up in the sale price. A comparison of 100 properties sold between 2023 and 2025 shows that properties marketed with professional photography and paid advertising sold for an average of 2.4% more than comparable properties that were only listed on the property portals. On an ISK 80 million property that is just under two million krónur — many times what the advertising costs.

More viewers = more offers = a higher price

The chain is simple, and it is always the same:

1. More people see the property. The advertising reaches people who would never have come across it otherwise.

2. More enquiries come in. A share of the people who see it get in touch.

3. More people turn up at the opið hús (open house viewing). A full living room changes the psychology in the room.

4. More offers arrive. And once there is more than one offer, competition forms.

5. The price rises. You do not need ten buyers — you need one who genuinely wants the property.

What can I do myself to raise the value of my property?

These are the things that cost little and deliver the most:

- Start moving out. Pack away clothes and belongings you will not need over the next few weeks. A lighter property feels larger and brighter.

- Clean — and then clean some more. Glass and windows in particular. Dirty glass leaves a buyer feeling the house has been poorly looked after and that the windows are due for replacement.

- Replace old, yellowed switches and sockets. Cheap, quick, and the difference shows immediately in the photographs.

- Paint where the walls are visibly marked. Not the whole flat — only where it is needed.

In short

- A higher price comes from more people seeing the property, not from making it perfect.

- A listing on a property portal on its own only reaches the people who are actively searching that week.

- Professional photography and paid social media advertising lift the number of views from 200–300 to 2,000–4,000.

- Well-marketed properties sold for an average of 2.4% more in a comparison of 100 properties sold between 2023 and 2025.

- Cleaning, clearing out and the small details cost little and pay off; competition between buyers is the only thing that genuinely raises the price.

Get in touch

Not sure where you stand? Baldur fasteignasali offers a free valuation and will advise you on what is worth doing before the property goes on the market.

[baldur@450.is / Direct line 450-0000 / Whatsapp: 354 776 0615