A Market Under Pressure: What the Latest Data Means for Estate Agents, Conveyancers and the People Who Rely on Them
Where the Market Stands
The residential property market enters the autumn in an unsettled condition. The Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75 per cent on 30 July 2026 for the fifth consecutive meeting, but the Monetary Policy Committee was divided six votes to three, with three members voting for an increase to 4 per cent because of concern that higher energy prices will keep inflation elevated.
The next decision is due tomorrow. Market pricing now points towards rises rather than cuts, a sharp reversal of the outlook that buyers were planning around at the start of the year.
The TwentyCi Property and Homemover Report for the second quarter of 2026, which draws on 99.6 per cent of all sale and rental transactions in the United Kingdom, sets out the effect of that uncertainty in detail. The picture is not one of collapse. It is one of a market in which sellers are still arriving in large numbers, buyers are more hesitant, and the transactions that do proceed are taking longer than ever to complete.
Indicator | Position (2026) | Movement |
New properties listed for sale | Highest level in a decade | Up 2.7% year to date |
Sales agreed | Softening, especially May and June | Down 5.0% year to date; down 8.1% in May and June |
Completed transactions (HMRC) | Below 2025, above 2023 and 2024 | Down 6.2% on 2025; up 15.7% on 2023 |
Average time to sale agreed | 76 days | Unchanged |
Average time from sale agreed to exchange | 130 days | Up 5 days |
Listings with at least one fall through | 23.4% | Down 1.0 percentage point |
Listings with at least one price reduction | 38.4% | Broadly unchanged |
Asking price compared with independent valuation | 11.6% above value | Up from 5.7% a year earlier |
Forecast transactions for 2026 | 1.15 million | Below 2025 (1.21 million) |
Source: TwentyCi and TwentyEA, Property and Homemover Report, Q2 2026. Figures are year to date unless otherwise stated.
Who is moving, and who is not
The profile of buyers has shifted markedly. In the second quarter, exchanges by homeowners aged 66 and over rose by 40.6 per cent year on year, and those aged 46 to 65 rose by 14.6 per cent. By contrast, exchanges by buyers aged 26 to 35 fell by 32.2 per cent and by those aged 18 to 25 by 58.4 per cent. The pattern repeats across household income: every income band below £70,000 recorded fewer exchanges, while households earning more than £150,000 recorded growth of 31.3 per cent.
In plain terms, the market is currently being carried by established, equity rich homeowners, many of them downsizing, while first time buyers and younger families are being squeezed out by mortgage costs and the wider cost of living. That shift has practical consequences for everyone involved in a transaction, as the sections below explain.
The Challenges Facing Estate Agents
Overpricing and stock that does not sell
The most striking finding in the report concerns asking prices. A year ago, the average newly listed property was marketed 5.7 per cent above its independent automated valuation. That gap has now widened to 11.6 per cent, and the share of stock listed more than 10 per cent above value has grown by almost 10 per cent. Property that is priced well ahead of its likely value sits on the market for longer, attracts fewer serious buyers and is more likely to need a reduction later. Nearly four in ten concluded listings already experience at least one price reduction.
Agents are caught between the seller who anchors to what they paid, or to what a neighbour achieved, and a buyer pool that is smaller and more cautious. Winning an instruction on an optimistic valuation may feel like success on the day, but it rarely serves the seller and it does nothing for the agent’s reputation when the property is still on the market months later.
Softer demand and a harder pipeline
Sales agreed volumes fell by 8.1 per cent across May and June compared with the same months last year, and mortgage approvals for house purchase in May reached their lowest level in two years. Because agreed sales feed through to completions several months later, agents should expect a thinner pipeline in the final quarter of 2026. Every sale that does not complete now carries a greater commercial cost than it did when demand was stronger.
Professional standards are coming
The Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 19 June 2026, sets a clear direction. During 2026 the Government intends to publish non-statutory guidance on material information in property listings and a non-statutory Code of Practice for property agents. In 2027 and 2028 it will consult on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents. By the end of this Parliament, subject to legislation, sellers will be required to provide sales packs before a property is listed, and binding conditional contracts will be introduced.
For agents, the measure of success is moving from the signed instruction to the completed sale. Agents who already work with a conveyancer before a property goes to market, so that title, leasehold and search information is ready from the outset, will be far better placed than those who do not.
Pressure on the lettings side
The report estimates that 834,800 homes, or 18.6 per cent of private rental stock, have left the rented sector this decade, with exits peaking around the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, whose main tenancy reforms took effect on 1 May 2026. For agents with a lettings department, that means fewer traditional landlords, more compliance work for those who remain and growing competition from build to rent operators who advertise directly to tenants.
The Challenges Facing Conveyancers
Transactions are taking longer
The time taken to find a buyer has barely changed since 2019. The time taken to get from an agreed sale to exchange of contracts has not. It has grown from around three months in 2019 to almost four and a half months in 2026, and the total journey from listing to completion now averages around seven months. In the second quarter, 30 per cent of transactions took five months or more to reach exchange, and the single most common outcome was six months.
Complexity drives much of this. Only 47.3 per cent of leasehold sales exchange within four months, compared with 59.0 per cent of freehold sales. More than half of properties under £200,000 exchange within three months, but only 38.2 per cent of properties over £1 million do so. The buyers who are active at present, older and wealthier, are disproportionately purchasing higher value homes with more involved funding.
The time it takes to find a buyer has not changed since 2019. The time it takes to get that buyer to exchange has grown by around half. That is where transactions are won or lost.
Searches that expire before completion
Lenders generally require property searches to be no more than six months old at completion. The report finds that 60.8 per cent of exchanges in 2026 took more than six months from instruction of the estate agent, up from 36.1 per cent in 2019. As the reform programme moves search ordering to the point of listing, a large proportion of transactions will require searches to be refreshed or insured before the lender will release funds. Conveyancers must track search dates actively, and the question of who orders, checks and pays for refreshed searches has not yet been answered by Government.
Funding is becoming more complicated
A market led by downsizers and higher earners brings a greater volume of funds derived from property sales, pension lump sums, investment portfolios, inheritances, business interests and gifts from family members. Each of those sources requires proper verification under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Conveyancing remains the area of legal practice that the Solicitors Regulation Authority identifies as presenting the greatest money laundering risk, and firms that treat source of funds checks as a formality expose their clients to delay at the worst possible moment, shortly before exchange, and expose themselves to regulatory action.
Property and payment fraud also continues to target conveyancing transactions. Identity verification, secure communication of bank details and rigorous checks on sellers are not optional extras; they are the foundation of a safe transaction.
Price pressure and the volume model
The part of the conveyancing market built on low fees and high caseloads is under particular strain. When transactions last longer, each file absorbs more time. A firm that has priced its work on the assumption of a short, straightforward matter has two choices when that assumption fails: to absorb the loss or to give the file less attention. Clients rarely see which choice has been made until something goes wrong.
The Local Picture: Norwich and the East of England
Norwich stands out in the report. Sales agreed in the city rose by 3.4 per cent in the second quarter, one of only two major cities to record growth, alongside Edinburgh. Lets agreed in Norwich rose by 6 per cent. Local demand is holding up better than in most of the country.
The wider region presents greater challenges. The East of England, together with Outer London, has the longest average time to exchange in the United Kingdom at 4.8 months. Only 35.8 per cent of sales in the region exchange within three months, compared with 58.4 per cent in the North East. The East of England has also seen the sharpest move towards overpricing of any region, with the share of stock listed more than 10 per cent above independent value rising by 19.3 per cent year on year, and asking rents for new lettings in the region fell by 7.7 per cent in May and June compared with the previous year.
For buyers and sellers in Norfolk, the message is clear. Demand is there, but realistic pricing and efficient progression are what convert an agreed sale into a completion.
Why Price Should Not Be the Deciding Factor
It is understandable that buyers and sellers compare conveyancing quotations and are drawn to the lowest figure. In the current market, that approach carries real risk. The difference between a very low quotation and a properly resourced service is usually modest when set against the value of the property and the costs that follow a failed transaction: lost survey and valuation fees, mortgage arrangement fees, removal bookings, and in some cases the loss of the property itself or the onward purchase.
A transaction does not fail because the conveyancing fee was a few hundred pounds higher. Transactions fail because enquiries were not raised promptly, because source of funds issues were discovered late, because searches expired, because nobody answered the telephone, or because the file sat with one overloaded person who was on leave at the critical moment.
Questions to ask before instructing a conveyancer
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How MJP Conveyancing Can Help
MJP Conveyancing is a specialist residential conveyancing practice based in Norwich and accredited under the Law Society Conveyancing Quality Scheme. Residential property is what we do, and our legal experience spans more than four decades.
Specialism
Our lawyers deal with residential transactions every day, including leasehold and shared ownership, new build purchases, transfers of equity, and purchases funded through gifts, family arrangements and the sale of other assets. That experience allows us to identify likely problems at the start of a matter rather than at the end, when they are most damaging.
Capacity and continuity
We do not rely on individual case handlers working in isolation. Matters are managed by teams, supported by technology that keeps files moving and gives clients and agents visibility of progress. If a colleague is absent, the file does not stop. We have the capacity to take on new instructions now, and we are able to start work promptly, including preparing a seller’s legal information before a property goes to market.
Compliance that protects the transaction
We carry out identity, source of funds and source of wealth checks early and thoroughly. That is not bureaucracy for its own sake. Resolving these questions at the outset avoids delays shortly before exchange, protects our clients from fraud and protects the transaction as a whole.
Working with local estate agents
We work closely with a number of very good local estate agents who share our commitment to realistic pricing, clear communication and getting transactions to completion. Where a client is looking for an agent to sell their home, we are happy to recommend agents whose work we know and trust. Clients are, of course, entirely free to choose their own agent and their own conveyancer, and where any commercial arrangement exists between us and an agent, we will always tell you about it before you make a decision.
In a slower, more complicated market, the right conveyancer is not the cheapest one. It is the one with the specialism, the capacity and the rigour to get you to completion.
Conclusion
The residential market in the second half of 2026 is not in crisis, but it is demanding. Supply is high, buyers are cautious, interest rates are more likely to rise than fall, and transactions are taking longer than at any point in recent memory. Reform is coming, and it will reward agents and conveyancers who work together from the moment a property is listed.
For buyers and sellers, the most important decision is not the size of the fee. It is the quality, experience and capacity of the people handling the transaction. If you are planning to buy or sell in Norwich or across Norfolk, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Sources
TwentyCi and TwentyEA, Property and Homemover Report, Q2 2026.
Bank of England, Monetary Policy Summary, 30 July 2026.
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, 19 June 2026.
Solicitors Regulation Authority, Sectoral Risk Assessment: Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, updated August 2026.
This report is intended as general information and commentary only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Market conditions and interest rate expectations described reflect the position as at September 2026 and may change rapidly. Please seek advice on your own circumstances before making any decision to buy or sell a property.
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