Home buyers failed to take up £32.4 billion worth of mortgages last year, partly due to worsening fall-throughs of property sales, according to figures from property industry consultancy Novus Strategy.
An analysis of Bank of England data for Monetary Financial Institutions by Novus revealed mortgage cancellations climbed 36.4% in 2025 – the largest annual jump in value in four years.
Although there may be a number of reasons for the cancellations, many are the result of the “unnecessarily long time” it takes to move from offer to completion, Novus said.
“Delays increase the chances that career moves, life events, a lack of upfront property information, and changing family, credit and financial circumstances cause chains to collapse,” the consultancy explained.
“Combined with the impact of abandoned purchases on estate agents and mortgage brokers, the overall cost to UK business is estimated to run into billions of pounds each year.”
Recent data released by TwentyCi show fall-throughs increased by 4.5% in 2025 compared to the previous year, despite new instructions and agreed sales rising by just 2.3% and 2.1% respectively.
“Avoidable fall-throughs cost the property industry as a whole billions of pounds a year and lenders will want to see these numbers coming down,” said Novus Strategy CEO Claire Van der Zant (pictured).
“While the myriad reasons that property transactions fall through may sound uncontrollable, the most powerful thing we can do to mitigate this is increase the speed at which transactions can complete. Everyone in the industry is acutely aware of this and it relies on moving out of the first phase of transformation, where business focused on internal digitalisation, to the second phase where we horizontally integrate for interoperability.”
Mortgage lenders have invested in shortening their ‘time to offer’ in recent years, Novus says – but with limited impact on transaction speed.
“Now, ‘time to completion’ is the new battleground and the industry is already taking steps to quicken the home buying process and bring cancellations down,” the company added.
“Technology platforms, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), Land Registry and industry bodies such as the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) are all working towards a world where open data standards and trust frameworks allow transactions to complete faster, with reusable permissions, qualified electronic signatures and upfront property information – essential initiatives that will make it possible.”
“Together, the industry is rewriting the fabric of the home buying industry using data standards, trust frameworks and smart data pilots,” Van der Sant said.
“The acid test will be that transaction times become a customer choice, not an excruciating six months of uncertainty.”
