The ripple effect of a property sale that falls through is, without exception, one of the most frustrating and disappointing events in the home-buying process: not just for buyers and vendors, but equally for estate agents who often lose out on the fair reward for long periods of hard work.
Quick Move Now’s Q4-2023 ‘Fall Through Rate Survey’ reveals that 35.1% of property sales in 2023 fell through. Some of these fall throughs were, as always, down to the buyer developing cold feet but a massive 38% of failed transactions on properties in chains were caused by breaks elsewhere in the chain with 17% of all fall throughs being down to the progress being too slow.
Fall-throughs are particularly challenging when property sales are down overall. In December 2023, UK residential transactions numbered 85,820, down 20% from December 2022 and 2% from November 2023, according to HMRC data.