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Fall-Through Mayhem - over 50,000 deals collapse since New Year

A prominent industry supplier has produced startling statistics about the numbers of fall throughs in just the first 10 weeks or so of 2022.

Upfront information provider Gazeal says that so far this year - up to March 17 - there has been an astonishing 53,856 sales collapsing, in well under three months of 2022.

According to property data consultancy TwentyEA, there has been a sale collapsing to the equivalent of every two minutes this year. 

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Gazeal warns that if the trends so far continue across 2022, some 100,000 transactions will have collapsed by the middle of the year and 200,000 to 250,000 transactions in total for the year. 

“This is just ridiculous when you consider the alternative solutions out there, which help to lower the risk of fall-throughs from occurring” according to Gazeal chief executive Bryan Mansell.

Mansell says: “Not only is there a greater offering of upfront information, so buyers and sellers alike know where they stand and don’t face any nasty surprises further down the line, but also digital reservation agreements, modern and traditional auctions, and other schemes which can be transformative for a property transaction by helping to commit both buyer and seller to a deal.” 

And Mansell believes that the three-stage proposals put forward by Trading Standards to increase the volume of information in property details still do not go far enough.

By the end of April all property listings must include the council tax band or rate (for lettings and sales), as well as the property price and tenure information (for sales). Over the coming weeks, data fields for these particulars will start to appear on the portals.

Then later changes - again introduced by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agent Team - will mean agents will have to add further ‘material information’. This would include, for example, restrictive covenants, flood risk and other specific factors that may impact certain properties.

Mansell comments: “The recent announcement by National Trading Standards is very welcome and has been a long time coming. But the housing market, and all of those who operate within, are still suffering from high numbers of deals collapsing. 

“There are solutions for this exact problem right here, right now, and the industry needs to get better at offering these solutions to the public to prevent or significantly lower the risks with private treaty sales.”  

 

He says this issue continues to have a serious impact on agents, conveyancers and other suppliers in the property industry, and causes hold-ups for consumers. 

Mansell believes the government, Trading Standards and the industry need to go further and faster with the three-stage plan.

“Faster action is required if we don’t want to see the number of fall-throughs remaining stubbornly high. It is better for professional estate agents to lead the change - after all, they are the experts in their markets." 

And he concludes: “I’ve said it plenty, but more upfront information is a win-win-win as far as I can see. We need to support all parts of the transaction if we truly want to improve the home buying and selling process, and make it faster, more robust and more transparent.”

  • C B
    • C B
    • 22 March 2022 06:47 AM

    If you do the maths on it, that’s just the average fall through rate at any given time.

    Obviously it would be great to reduce fall throughs, but that’s a ridiculous and scare mongering headline.

  • C B
    • C B
    • 22 March 2022 06:49 AM

    If anything, it’s a bit on the low side which is probably an indicator of how strong the market is.

    EAT, you should be ashamed of yourself for that headline.

  • Rob Hailstone

    Can't argue with: "more upfront information is a win-win-win as far as I can see"

  • John Ahmed

    Whilst you can't argue with better or more upfront information I think that headline is a deliberate scare tactic from vested interests.
    Looking at the math the fall throughs are probably slightly better than a normal anytime market.... I smell scaremongering!

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    John you are 100% correct.
    Would make little difference

    Chains are falling through because vendors at the top cannot find a home to move to.

    I am a developer we get a lot of sales from buyers who have had a chain fall through on the second hand market due to this.

    Not one has ever said it is because they have no info up front.;

     
  • Murray Lee

    Im not seeing this, on the contrary we are managing to keep most, if not all our sales together
    In the last 3 months we have had a 0% fall through. Scaremongering... agreed

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    Yes Gazeal provided the stats and then have their advert plastered all over the article.

  • Andrew Stanton PROPTECH-PR A Consultancy for Proptech Founders

    From analysis nationally cancellation rate is around 23% and climbing, so the typical 28% to 31% industry standard may be returning.

    There are a whole host of factors in 2022 that were not around a year ago, no sdlt holiday, base rate moving from 0.1% to 0.75%, cost of living crisis, Russian war, high inflation, all these factors will dampen the market from last year.

    Which may just translate into a 'normal' 1.18M average completions, instead of the bumper - chancellor giveaway fuelled 2021 market.

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    This is exactly what this article should have said. Sadly the article is presented by Gazeal who want everyone to be scared of fall throughs so we sign up to their wonder product 🙄

     
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    Not seen many, but typically it's either hit a problem financing it or just changed their mind.

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    I wonder how many are falling through because buyers haven’t been upfront with their information…

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    Where is the comparative data? It's not great reporting to use figures in a headline without at least adding some context in the article itself!

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    • N W
    • 22 March 2022 09:51 AM

    what a load of tosh this article is.

    We haven't seen hordes of fall thro's (some, but predominantly changing personal circumstances and health issues with both buyers and sellers).

    To imply that more fall thros are happening as a result of poor information is poor journalism and an article purely aimed at selling a service in my view.

    As an agent of 38 years we are always up front about everything that we know - flooding, knotweed, structural issues where known, neighbour disputes etc

    Come on EAT, your quality control on articles is poorly lacking these days

  • Bryan Mansell

    Firstly, Gazeal did not produce the headline, we were asked for some numbers on fall throughs. Secondly, anyone saying it's no worse than last year, is missing the point, why is it just accepted as part of the industry. Lastly those of you that are not seeing it in your business, congratulations fingers crossed everyone else follows suit.

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