The home buying and selling process in England and Wales has come under great scrutiny in the last year, with experts claiming it is fundamentally flawed. With such a low platform off which to launch, this offers the opportunity to revolutionise the process and really improve the services that al those involved in conveyancing have to offer.
The research from national home buyer Quick Move Now, which looks at the property market in England and Wales, claims that almost 28% of sales fell through before completion in the third quarter of 2017. That’s an increase of 2% from the previous quarter.
What is the problem?
What we hear most from buyers, sellers and estate agents another conveyancing specialists, is that over 300,000 property transactions in England and Wales break down each year, costing sellers on average almost £3,000.
A key issue is that of “gazundering” – the underhand and highly frowned upon tactic used by unscrupulous buyers to lower their offer immediately prior to exchange of contracts. This undermines home selling process and forces the chain to break down.
Gazumping, where a seller agrees to accept an offer from a buyer, but then changes their mind and accepts a higher offer from an alternative buyer is another reason for transactions failing. It is such a serious problem that in late 2017, the Government issued a ‘Call for Evidence’ from experts within the property industry to seek out suggestions on how to resolve this
Statistics show that the longer it takes for a transaction to reach exchange of contracts, the more likely it is for the deal to fall through. Over 30% of transactions will fall through historically, but in 2018, the latest figures show that closer to 40% of home movers, first time buyers or even buy to let investors, will fail to complete.
Home movers are forecast to lose more than £400m each year due to deals falling through.
What do the experts say?
Commenting on the research, Danny Luke, Quick Move Now’s Managing Director said: “2016 as a whole was a turbulent year for the UK property market, with external factors like the EU referendum, the triggering of Article 50 all playing their part on the fall through rate. As we reflect on Q3, it’s clear the UK property market is still full of uncertainty and instability.”
He went on to add that: “These reasons behind the house sale fall throughs would indicate a complete lack of confidence from buyers. Nearly every day, the media is reporting a property price slow-down across the UK. And with many property experts predicting this downward shift to continue as we go into 2018, I would expect buyers to become even more apprehensive in the short term.”
The new research comes as a leading auctioneer claims that vendors are turning to auctions to sell their homes as high street agents struggle to find buyers in today’s “challenging selling environment”.
