"Although a hold on interest rates since September last year has helped to steady the economic outlook, homebuyers are continuing to struggle with far higher interest rates than they’ve previously become accustomed to"
- Gemma Young - Moverly
Analysis by Moverly has found that the number of property transactions subject to a fall through has increased by 18.1% on a quarterly basis, but withdrawals remain, by far, the most prevalent problem for the UK housing market.
Moverly analysed the number of fall-throughs and withdrawals that have occurred on a quarterly basis between Q1 2023 and Q2 2024.
A fall-through is generally considered to be a property transaction that collapses after an offer has already been made and accepted. Meanwhile, a withdrawal refers to instances where a seller decides to remove their property from the market at any point after being listed, perhaps because they’ve not received enough buyer interest, or are struggling to achieve their desired asking price.
Moverly’s analysis shows that in Q2 2024, 76,619 property transactions fell through, marking a quarterly increase of 18.1%, and an annual rise of 12.5%.
Meanwhile, the number of withdrawals has only seen a quarterly increase of 2.1% and an annual rise of 9.5%.
However, the huge number of withdrawals that occur continue to have a much greater impact on the UK housing market than fall-throughs do.
In fact, in Q2 2024 alone, the UK saw 187,262 withdrawals, which is equivalent to 2.4 withdrawals for every fall-through.
Gemma Young, Moverly CEO, comments: “Although a hold on interest rates since September last year has helped to steady the economic outlook, homebuyers are continuing to struggle with far higher interest rates than they’ve previously become accustomed to.
"So it’s hardly surprising that we’ve seen a sharp uplift in the number of sales falling through, as the market continues to suffer from the instability caused by the higher cost of borrowing.
"At the same time, a great deal of sellers are choosing to withdraw from the market and this is no doubt due to the fact that they simply aren’t gaining the interest required or at the price point they expected.
"Previous research of ours has shown that a common reason for homes struggling to find buyers is a misaligned pricing strategy, so accurate and reasonable valuation is always essential.
"Simpler still, sales can be sped up and the chances of attracting a good buyer with a good offer increased by ensuring that they are supplied with all of the vital information they require to make a buying decision.
"The good news is that the market has certainly turned a corner and during Q3, in particular, we’ve seen a notable uplift in buyers entering the market.
"With market momentum starting to build, there’s a good chance that we could see a reduction in fall through rates during the second half of this year and, with more buyers entering the fray, we should see fewer sellers taking the decision to withdraw as well.”
