Over 36% of UK home sales fall through before completion, new research shows

More than one in three house sales in the second quarter of 2015 in the UK failed to reach completion, according to new data, with the most common reason a change of mind.

Figures indicate a house sale fall through rate of 36.34%, a rise of over 13.5% from the reported 22.76% rate in the first quarter of the year, according to research from Quick Move Now.

The figures over a six month period show it was 24.77% at the end of the first quarter but increased to 28.44% at the end of the second quarter of 2015.

‘As the listing market becomes more buoyant and an increasing number of listings become available, both sides of a listing sale feel they have options if the sale is not progressing as quickly or as well as they had hoped,’ said Danny Luke, business manager at Quick Move Now.

‘Buyers are less likely to move forward with a purchase if the survey brings up surprises, and sellers are less willing to drop the price in a renegotiation, confident that they’ll be able to find another buyer fairly easily,’ he added.

The firm looked at the reasoning behind the fall through rate and found that across the last six months some 22% of home sales that fell through did so as a result of the buyer changing their mind, 16% as a result of the buyer being refused lending, 13% due to slow sale progress and a further 13 % due to a higher offer coming in.

Some 8.7% of the house sales that failed to reach completion did so after the buyer attempted to renegotiate, 6 % fell foul to issues that were highlighted during a survey, 5.8% failed to successfully complete due to a change in the buyer’s circumstances, and a further 5.8% fell through due to a chain breakdown.

It also found that 4% failed to complete because the buyer decided to buy a different listing, 3% broke down due to lease issues and the remaining 3% failed to complete as a result of legal complications.

Quick Move Now buys and sells hundreds of listings each year and the fall through statistics are calculated monthly, quarterly and using a six month average.

BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)     

Source: Property News Spain