Sharp rise in property transaction fall-throughs costs £300m

There has been a a sharp increase in the number of property fall-throughs, according to House Buyer Bureau.

Their latest industry index has revealed that there has been a sharp increase in both the number of property transactions falling through in Q3 of 2022, as well as the associated cost. 

House Buyer Bureau analyses the number of transaction fall throughs across the UK property market, what this means in terms of the average cost of a fall through and what the total cost to the property market is as a result.

The latest index shows that in Q3 of last year, 90,188 transactions are estimated to have fallen through, a 15.6% increase on a quarterly basis and a 3.6% uplift versus this time last year. This is also the highest quarterly number of fall throughs recorded over the last five years. 

What’s more, a combination of runaway inflation and increasing house prices have pushed the average cost of a property transaction collapse to £3,337. 

House Buyer Bureau estimates that homebuyers and sellers were hit by a total estimated cost of almost £301m as a result.  
 

Quarterly spike

This total cost is not only 18.7% up on the previous quarter, but also 16.3% on an annual basis. 

There is one silver lining for the nation's buyers and sellers, as House Buyer Bureau estimates that the total number of fall throughs seen in 2022 will still sit some -6.7% below the total seen in 2021. 

However, this is largely down to the fact that the first two quarters of the year saw a far lower level of transactions falling through, with the latest quarterly spike suggesting that the property market could be in for a rougher ride in 2023. 

Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, said: “We’ve seen a consistent increase in the number of property transactions falling through in recent years and despite a fairly settled start to 2022, the latest data shows that the number of sales collapsing hit a five year high in the third quarter of 2022. 

This is almost certainly due to the turbulence that came via the mortgage sector in September, as lenders pulled a raft of products and increased mortgage fees.”

As a result, many buyers found that they could no longer afford the cost of borrowing which has led to swathes of property sales falling by the wayside during the second half of last year. This may well be maintained into 2023.

Data tables and sources can be viewed online, here.