Property Press Online

Property Reporter have released the latest figures from Quick Move Now regarding house sales. 

A recent article from Property Reporter has released new data regarding fallen through sales in England and Wales. Quick Move Now, a independent cash house buyer, released data about house sales. According to the data, property buyers across the UK have remained committed to getting homeowners moving, as only 24.2% of house sales fell through in 2019.

The quarterly data also revealed that the last quarter of 2019 saw a fall through rate of 28.21%.

Looking at the reasons behind the sales falling through, it seems both parties (buyers and sellers) were happy to look for a better deal; even when they had accepted an offer on a property. Of those that fell through in the final quarter of 2019, 36% fell through due to the buyer changing their mind. 27% ended up breaking the chain due to accepting an offer higher from a different buyer.

As well as these two reasons, there were other decisions made by homeowners. 11% of sellers said they had to pull out due to problems securing mortgage finances. 9% decided not to complete the process due to an issue that came up in the survey. Also, another 9% said that they had to pull out from a house sale due to someone further up the chain breaking away.

Why chains were broken in Q4 of 2019

The main reasons were:

• The buyer changes their mind – 36%
• The seller took a higher offer from another buyer – 27%
• There was difficulty securing a mortgage – 18%
• There was an issue identified during the survey – 9%
• The chain was broken – 9%

Annually, the reason taking the first two places was the same as 2019. This was then followed by those who struggled to get backing from a mortgage lender on the house they wanted; then however, the next conveyed that many sellers were bored of the slow progression of the house sale, resulting them pulling out. This was followed by those who were unfortunate to have a chain break somewhere else in the links. Next, data revealed that there were problems with RICS and finally, a buyer accepting a higher amount to previous and changing buyers.

Why property chains broke in the whole of 2019

• The buyer changed their decisions – 34%
• There was difficulty around securing a mortgage – 17%
• Seller decided to pull out due to slow progression of the sale – 13%
• There was a chain break – 13%
• There was a problem identified through a survey – 11%
• Seller decided to accept a high offer – 10%

What did Quick Move Now think?

Property Reporter spoke to Danny Luke from Quick Move Now, a managing director of the company, about this data. He commented that 2019 was a very mixed year overall for the property market. He also mentioned that this was due to so much political uncertainty. The UK in 2019 faced a general election, two different prime ministers and uncertainty over Brexit. This overall impacted on the homeowners and buyers confidence within the market. It also left many buyers in a ‘wait and see’ mood, meaning they held off from purchasing or selling any property.