Fall-through rates have fallen slightly in 10 of the UK’s 13 regions, according to the latest report from property data analysts TwentyCi.
The national rate fell from 24% in Q1 25 to 23.7% in Q1 26 – “a modest but meaningful” 0.3% percentage-point decline, TwentyCi said. The year-on-year reduction stands at 1.3%.
The improvement was found in 10 of the UK’s 13 regions, with Northern Ireland experienced the largest reduction at -11.1%. London was “the clear outlier,” TwentyCi said, with the fall-through rate rising from 24.6% to 27.0%, a 9.7% year-on-year increase.
“In practical terms, this means more than one in four agreed sales in central London collapsed before exchange,” TwentyCi pointed out. “The increase coincides with the announcement of the proposed mansion tax in November 2025, which is likely to have weighed on buyer confidence.”
Stuart Ducker, strategic solutions director at TwentyCi, said: “While the overall decline in fall-through rates is modest, it’s still meaningful for agents operating in a challenging market. In absolute terms, fall-throughs dropped by 12.1%, from 76,814 in Q1 2025 to 67,489 this year.
“However, volumes only tell part of the story, which is why looking at fall-through rates provides a clearer view of underlying market stability. The regional variation is also notable, with some areas seeing significantly stronger improvements than others.”
As part of the analysis, TwentyCi examined every fall-through in Q1 2026 by the number of weeks elapsed since the sale was agreed and compared this with the same period in 2025, revealing around 38% of all fall-throughs occur within the first four weeks. Weeks one and two account for just under 16% of all collapsed transactions.
“If a deal is going to fall through, it’s most likely to happen within that window,” Ducker said.
After week 12, the weekly share falls below 3% and continues to decline steadily.
TwentyCi measures the fall-through rate as the percentage of concluded listings with a sale agreed that failed to complete. The data was revealed in TwentyCi’s latest edition of its Property & Homemover Report for Q1 26.
