Is the UK Property Market Broken?

Fall throughs are, quite frankly, through the roof

According to a recent survey by Quick Move Now, a leading UK homebuyer, around 29% of agreed property sales collapse before completion in England and Wales. While we’re told to prepare for the unexpected, the reasons behind most failed sales are predictable, avoidable, and entirely navigable. There’s no single root cause affecting agents, buyers, and sellers, but recurring obstacles within the homebuying process reveal where the fracture points truly lie.

People often run before they can walk… or swipe before they can close. Wishful thinking likely accounts for around 2-3% of inbound leads from first-time buyers misunderstanding their affordability, to buyers not being fully qualified, or mortgage approvals falling through. In fact, approximately 21.8% of home seekers struggled to secure a mortgage in 2024. 

Even if buyers are qualified and have a mortgage in place and had an offer accepted, they still face the dreaded home survey which was responsible for 27.3% of withdrawals last year. And perhaps most frustrating of all, buyer’s remorse: a change of heart that led to 23.6% of failed sales in 2024.

Unsurprisingly, sellers can be just as responsible for a fall-through. It’s no secret that they’re keen to maximise their return, so it’s hardly shocking that 14.5% withdrew from a sale after receiving a higher offer elsewhere. They are also heavily influenced by momentum, with 12.8% of fall-throughs attributed to slow progress or chain breakage.

So what is 10% here and another 10% there, every now and then? Success isn’t linear and neither is sales.  Sometimes things have to dip before they rip. But when you translate that 29% fall-through rate into market value, it represents an estimated £1.38 billion in lost commission for Estate Agents across 2024. Let’s be clear: this isn’t an abstract figure. That £1.38 billion is money lost due to bad data, fragmented processes, and institutional inefficiencies, the kind that continue to undermine trust and performance across the property sector. The saying that time is money has never been more true. Time spent inefficiently is costing everyone money.

So what solutions are there? Firstly, let’s start with the obvious: the more prepared the buyer or seller, the better the conversion rate is going to be. This isn’t just common sense, it’s evidence-based. Q1 of 2025 saw near-record levels of mortgage approvals, with 89% of applicants granted financing. Of that 89% of potential buyers, around 76% completed their purchases within that same timeframe. 

The market is there, and it’s stable. What is needed is more action taken to plug the leaks in the sieve, keeping that 30% firmly within the funnel.

Knowledge is power, so much power, in fact, that according to research conducted by Sprift in 2022, a leading source of residential property data in England and Wales, fall-throughs dropped by a staggering 13.31% when buyers were presented with upfront information at the point of listing. That’s one in seven sales saved. There is also growing evidence that supplying potential buyers with “conveyancing packs” at the beginning of their home search can lead to up to a 43% reduction in fall-throughs. It all seems so obvious when laid out like this. We all make better decisions when we have access to the full picture.

You wouldn’t buy a car without checking its MOT, taking it for a test drive, or confirming its tax status, so why make an offer on a house without looking under its metaphorical bonnet first?

And so we look to Scotland, which has done something about this fixable problem and seen tangible results. According to ESPC, a Scottish property portal, England sees one in four sales collapse, while Scotland sees just one in twelve. Does this mean that around 16.5% of collapsed sales are avoidable and if so, what factors contribute to this?

Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, attributes much of the difference to the contrasting conveyancing systems between England and Scotland. Scottish homebuyers and sellers enter into a legally binding process  or “concluding missives” at a much earlier point of sale than in England. This demands transparency and commitment from both parties and deters those who aren’t serious.

So can a better-informed buyer and a better-prepared seller really account for a fifth fewer collapses? At drifthome, we are passionate about making sure you are being connected to the right people at the right time in your property journey. Unlike traditional portals, we’re using artificial intelligence to understand user preferences, advise and match them with the right residential property, fast. Our platform is designed to work for everyone: intuitive for buyers, fair for agents, and powered by smart AI that learns what you like so you can find the right place, faster. We’re flipping the model, no paywalls for agents, no endless scrolling through irrelevant listings, just an experience that truly helps people move, and moves the industry forward. Find out more here.