New data has revealed that despite a quarterly reduction in both the volume and cost of the average fall through in 2022, the total annual cost to UK homebuyers and sellers topped £1 billion in 2022, a 6.3% increase on the previous year.
The latest industry index on property fall throughs by House Buyer Bureau analysed 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 for 2022, shows that a “cooling housing market did present a silver lining” in the form of a reduction in fall throughs. The latest figures show 75,809 homebuyers and sellers were subject to a property sale collapse, a -15.9% drop on the previous quarter as market activity started to slow.
Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, Chris Hodgkinson, commented:
“There’s no denying that the market has now started to cool and while this may bring its own concerns, a reduction in both sales volumes and house prices during the final stages of last year has, at least, seen a drop in the number of transactions that are collapsing on a quarterly basis, as well as a reduction in the cost incurred by buyers and sellers.”
The cost associated with a property fall through also fell by -0.8% to an average of £3,311. As a result, the total cost of sales to have collapsed during the final quarter of last year totalled just shy of £251 million – one that sat -16.6% below the previous quarter.
However, while there may have been a reduction in both volume and cost on a quarterly basis, the number of fall throughs seen in 2022 were still 16.9% higher on an annual basis, with the average cost up 11.4%.
Hodgkinson also added that this “quarterly market gauge of instability not only remains higher when compared to the final quarter of 2021, but when viewing 2022 as a whole, the total cost to the industry has also continued to climb, breaching the £1bn threshold”.
