Offer to purchase on price as advertised refused.

[IzZzy]

An oral offer to purchase immovable property has no force in law. It has to be written.

 

[bwana]

An oral offer to purchase immovable property has no force in law. It has to be written.

And surely accepted by both the buyer and the seller?

 

[Carol35]

Of course they're trying their luck... you should have gone in 10% below, and put it on paper. Then they have to countersign it or reject it outright.

Actually come to think of it, make the agent do some work for their commission. Go in, sign an OTP at 10% off the advertised price, the agent is obligated to present it to the owner, they might change their tune when its in paper and would be binding on both parties if signed.

This.

You should have made a formal written offer that the agent had to present to the seller.
This happened to us too but we gave our written offer and it was below the asking price, agent laughed but we told her to hand it over to seller. Was rejected naturally and they counter offered etc but we stuck to our guns at what we could afford. Low and behold, a month later, agent called and said seller was ready to accept. We lol'ed

 

[Arthur]

And surely accepted by both the buyer and the seller?

Once a written offer has been made, it need only be accepted in writing for a valid contract to come into existence. Period.