Buyers Walking Away Account for 37.5% of Failed Sales in New Study

An accepted offer is proving a fragile milestone for some home movers. Buyers changing their minds accounted for 37.5% of failed sales in Quick Move Now’s latest study, making withdrawal the largest recorded cause of a collapsed transaction.

The Q3 figures, reported by Property Industry Eye on 3 November, put mortgage and lending problems second, at 18.75%. Survey issues and slow progress each accounted for a further 12.5%.

Separate research from TwentyCi shows why uncertainty can linger. The average time between a sale being agreed and contracts being exchanged has reached 127 days so far in 2026, four days longer than in 2025.

For a buyer, that can mean months between agreeing a price and securing the move. During that interval, a promising purchase can become a succession of questions about borrowing, survey findings, cash requirements and whether the rest of the chain will be ready.

What caused the failed transactions?

The categories describe the reasons recorded when transactions failed. They do not establish what was behind each buyer’s change of mind. A revised budget, personal circumstances or simply finding another property could produce the same recorded outcome.

Quick Move Now’s chief executive, Danny Luke, links the findings to a lengthy sales process that leaves buyers exposed to changing circumstances. The practical concern is the amount that can remain unresolved after a price has been agreed.

A longer wait, despite fewer recorded fall-throughs

The wider picture is more nuanced than a surge in collapsed sales. TwentyCi’s Q3 report records a 6.4% annual fall in fall-through volumes, alongside a 6% decline in sales agreed. Those are changes in transaction numbers, rather than a measure of why individual buyers withdrew.

The 127-day average concerns the period from sale agreed to exchange. It is not the time from first marketing a property to moving day, and it will vary considerably between transactions.

Even so, four months is a substantial interval for households arranging removals, school places or an onward purchase. A delay in one part of the chain can leave several families revising the same plans.

In England and Wales, government guidance confirms that an accepted offer is not legally binding until contracts are exchanged. That leaves both the agreed transaction and the money already spent on progressing it exposed while outstanding issues are resolved.

A buyer can like the house before understanding the mortgage

Agreeing a price is often the moment a move starts to feel real. The buyer has found the right home, the seller has accepted and the agent can begin coordinating the next steps. But enthusiasm and a workable borrowing position can develop at different speeds.

A household may have used an online repayment calculator, discussed a broad budget or obtained an agreement in principle. Those are useful starting points. MoneyHelper explains that an agreement in principle remains an initial estimate, with the formal mortgage dependent on a fuller assessment and the property itself.

For a company director relying on dividends, a consultant with variable earnings or someone receiving a large bonus, the details can materially affect the amount available. Understanding how the income will be assessed before negotiating gives the buyer a firmer basis for the offer.

A later request for documents need not signal a problem. Discovering that the purchase relies on income the chosen lender will not accept is a different matter, especially after other parties have started spending money.

The deposit can look sufficient until the other costs are counted

Cash planning creates another potential surprise. A buyer with £200,000 available might initially see that as a 25% deposit on an £800,000 home, requiring a £600,000 mortgage.

If the buyer then sets aside an illustrative £40,000 for taxes, fees, moving costs and retained cash reserves, only £160,000 remains for the purchase price. The mortgage requirement becomes £640,000, or 80% of the price.

That £40,000 difference may change the available products, monthly payment and affordability assessment. A household comfortable with the original calculation may feel differently when the complete budget is presented. The assumed allowance is not a tax quotation; actual costs depend on the transaction.

This is an avoidable source of uncertainty. Establishing the cash contribution after costs, and deciding how much money should remain available after completion, makes the proposed mortgage a more useful figure.

Delay introduces a second deadline: the mortgage offer

Once a formal offer is issued, attention can shift to searches, enquiries and the rest of the chain. The mortgage still has a timetable of its own.

An offer does not remain available indefinitely. As MoneyHelper’s guidance on offer expiry explains, a lender may agree an extension, but is not obliged to do so. If the offer expires, a new application may be needed.

The 127-day market average does not mean a particular borrower will run out of time. Offers are issued at different stages and have different terms. The relevant date is the deadline applying to that borrower’s completion.

Where a chain is slipping, identifying that date early gives the adviser and conveyancer time to establish what is possible. Leaving the question until a proposed completion date is finally agreed can turn a manageable delay into an urgent financing problem.

Money tied up in another sale adds a different uncertainty

A home mover’s deposit may depend on equity being released from their current property. Until that sale completes, the money is not available in the same way as cash already held in a bank account.

That distinction becomes important when a seller wants a quick completion or a buyer elsewhere in the chain withdraws. The purchaser may still be willing and able to afford the long-term mortgage, while lacking the funds needed on the required day.

Changing the sequence, agreeing a revised timetable or considering suitable temporary finance may be possible. Each needs its own assessment of cost, security and repayment. An anticipated sale should not be treated as guaranteed simply because it once had an accepted offer.

For agents, readiness matters alongside the offer price

The findings give estate agents a useful reason to look beyond the headline offer. The practical questions are whether the buyer’s income has been reviewed, the deposit is accessible, the overall budget works and any dependency on another sale is understood.

With the buyer’s consent, an adviser can help clarify the funding position and outstanding steps. That gives the agent more useful information for progressing the transaction without circulating the buyer’s detailed financial records.

It can also help distinguish a solvable borrowing issue from a purchase that needs a different budget. A lender requiring further evidence, a shortfall in cash and an expiring offer call for different responses.

Some withdrawals will still be sensible. A serious survey finding or an unresolved legal issue can justify walking away. The opportunity is to resolve financing questions early enough that they do not become an unexpected reason for an otherwise workable move to fail.

Willow can review those questions before an offer is made or while a transaction is progressing. For buyers and the agents supporting them, the value is a clearer understanding of what the purchase needs and which parts of the funding remain outstanding.