The final Property and Homemover Report for 2025 from TwentyCi and TwentyEA reveals a 10% increase in transactions compared to the previous year, with the highest number of properties listed for sale in a decade – over 1.7 million.
Exchange volumes increased by 12.6% in comparison to 2024, ending the year at 986,665. The average time to exchange was 123 days, 1.4% higher than in 2024.
While many of the figures reflect a positive year for the market, some key indicators revealed ongoing struggles. The number of fall throughs increased, up by 4.5% to 303,538, as did price reductions – up by 10.8% to 1,125,158. There were 803,612 properties withdrawn from the market, up 7.6% compared to 2024.
Although the volumes are positive overall, the latter half of the year saw “significant market softening,” the report notes, driven by reduced consumer confidence ahead of the November budget. The introduction of a mansion tax on properties valued over £2 million, due to take effect in April 2028, led to buyer caution in the high-end market.
However, Colin Bradshaw, TwentyCi CEO, said despite some downturns, the 2025 property market “weathered everything that was thrown at it”.
He added:
“A series of government policy decisions left little incentive for the nation to move, from the end of stamp duty relief to higher council tax on second homes and, more recently, confirmation of the hotly rumoured mansion tax. Yet transactions were still up on the prior year.”
Bradshaw expects the coming year to be similarly positive, a view in line with the housing market figures released so far this month. “We’re entering 2026 following a further base rate cut by the Bank of England in December and robust sales agreed volumes, which point to steady transaction growth flowing well into the new year,” he said.
“Despite a market exposed to several potential risks, we maintain steady confidence in the market’s resilience. If 2025 has taught us anything, it’s that people will continue to move, come what may.”
Alex Bannister, independent board adviser at TwentyCi and former director of Future Ventures at Nationwide Building Society, agrees.
He explained:
“Looking ahead to the UK housing market in 2026, I’d say, like Ian Dury did, that there are reasons to be cheerful.
“First, UK mortgage rates should decline, as inflation is finally under control, and help boost confidence for prospective home buyers, for whom renting remains unattractive despite the cessation of high rent growth.
“Second, lenders remain sanguine about credit losses on UK housing and are likely to loosen the taps on mortgage lending with regulator and government support, given that this is the only thing that helps first-time buyers get their foot on the housing ladder.
“Third, even if UK economic performance remains unspectacular, there is nothing to suggest a more extreme economic downturn, so another year of ‘steady as she goes’ looks on the cards. I would be at the upper end of the forecast range again this year, with price growth of 3%+ likely and transactions north of 1.2 million.”
Growth in demand was seen in all UK regions with the exception of London (down 6% in Inner London and down 2% in Outer London) and Northern Ireland (down 4%). Welsh properties topped the charts in growth terms, up 7% year-on-year, with East Midlands, Scotland and the North West all enjoying a 5% increase in sales agreed.
The average asking price for a residential property in the UK in 2025 was £418,000, which Bannister said is likely to “stagnate” in the coming year given current economic conditions.
