Almost 28% of sales in England and Wales fell through in third quarter of 2017

The report shows that just over 28% of all house sales fell through before completion, an increase from 26% in the previous quarter, according to study from national home buyer Quick Move Now.

A breakdown of the figures show that 26% of fall throughs was due to the sale not going forward, 21% due to the lender refusing borrowing and 21% due to the buyer trying to renegotiate the price.

It also found that in 16% of cases the buyer changed their mind and did not want to continue with the sale, while 11% were due to the buyer pulling out because of survey issues and the other 5% was accounted for by other issues.

Along with the quarterly results, the research revealed annual fall through figures, which offer a greater overview of how the property market is performing generally, allowing for seasonal peaks and troughs as well as external economic factors.

On an annual basis nearly 63% occurred due to hesitation on the buyer’s part. Some 26% of buyers weren’t progressing forwards with their sale, 21% of buyers tried to renegotiate on their original offer, while 16% of buyers completely changed their mind about the sale.

These reasons behind the house sale fall throughs would indicate a complete lack of confidence from buyers, according to Danny Luke, Quick Move Now’s managing director.

‘2016 as a whole was a turbulent year for the UK property market, with external factors like the EU referendum, the triggering of Article 50 all playing their part on the fall through rate. It is clear the UK property market is still full of uncertainty and instability,’ he said.

‘Nearly every day, the media is reporting a property price slowdown across the UK. And with many property experts predicting this downward shift to continue as we go into 2018, I would expect buyers to become even more apprehensive in the short term,’ he added.

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