Mini-Budget cost industry £300 million in transaction fall-throughs

The number of property transactions falling through after last year’s Mini-Budget was the highest recorded in five years and cost more than £300 million, latest data from the House Buyer Bureau Index reveals.

Not only was there a sharp increase in both the number of property transactions falling through in Q3 2022 but also the cost associated with them.

FALLEN

The latest index shows that in Q3 of last year, 90,188 transactions are estimated to have fallen through, a 15.6% increase on a quarterly basis and a 3.6% uplift versus this time last year – the highest quarterly number of fall throughs in five years.

Meanwhile the combination of runaway inflation and increasing house prices have pushed the average cost of a property transaction collapse to £3,337.

As a result, House Buyer Bureau estimates that homebuyers and sellers were hit by a total estimated cost of almost £301m as a result of their transactions falling through in Q3 2022.

The latest data shows that the number of sales collapsing hit a five year high in the third quarter of 2022.”

Chris Hodgkinson (pictured), Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau, says: “We’ve seen a consistent increase in the number of property transactions falling through in recent years and despite a fairly settled start to 2022, the latest data shows that the number of sales collapsing hit a five year high in the third quarter of 2022.

TURBULENCE

“This is almost certainly due to the turbulence that came via the mortgage sector in September, as lenders pulled a raft of products and increased mortgage fees in reaction to the Bank of England’s aggressive attempts to curb inflation via a string of consecutive interest rate increases.

“As a result, many buyers found that they could no longer afford the cost of borrowing which has led to swathes of property sales falling by the wayside during the second half of last year.”