Fall-throughs continued to rise in 2023 - claim

Fall-throughs are estimated to have cost UK buyers and sellers £270m during the third of last year, research suggests.

It marks the second consecutive quarterly increase in sales collapsing.

Upfront information provider Home Sale Pack analysed the latest data from TwentyCi on the number of estimated fall throughs seen across the market, as well as the estimated cost of a fall through taking inflation and the increased cost of legal fees into account, before looking at the total cost of collapsed transactions to the nation’s homebuyers and sellers. 

The figures show that the number of transactions falling through is on the up, increasing by 13.3% in the third quarter of 2023, having already increased by 9.3% between the first and second quarter of the year.

Home Sale Pack estimates that the average cost of a fall through has also climbed to £3,433 - an increase of £51 on the previous quarter and £84 versus the start of the year. 

As a result, Home Sale Pack estimates that the total cost of fall throughs to UK buyers and sellers sat just shy of £270m during the third quarter of last year, 15% higher than the second quarter.

Fall-throughs remain below the levels seen the previous year though.

There were 12.8% fewer fall throughs seen during the third quarter of 2023 versus the same period in 2022, while the total cost to the market was also down 9.8% annually.

The analysis by Home Sale Pack also shows that the total cost of fall-throughs for the first nine months of 2023 was £717m.

Ruth Beeton, co-founder of Home Sale Pack, said: “2023 proved to be a challenging year for the property market and fall throughs remained a prominent obstacle for many homebuyers and sellers to overcome. 

“The good news is that slower market conditions and fewer transactions tend to yield fewer fall throughs and so both the number and resulting cost incurred in 2023 have, so far, remained somewhat lower when compared to the previous year. 

“Despite this, fall throughs have been increasing consistently throughout 2023 and with the market starting to show signs of a resurgence towards the end of the year, we expect this trend to have continued in Q4. 

“Unfortunately fall throughs are often part and parcel of buying or selling a property and, in some cases, they are inevitable. However, the provision of upfront information has been proven to significantly reduce the threat of a fall through and it’s one area where sellers have the power to be proactive. In doing so, they can help increase the speed of their transaction while reducing the threat of it collapsing.”