There is an economic opportunity of over £900 million in England being missed by property transactions falling through, new Rightmove analysis shows.
The figure is based on the 6% of property transactions that fall through and don’t come back to market within a year, using last year’s 1.03 million housing transactions in England, an average stamp duty payment of £7,590 and an assumed average estate agency commission of 1.5%.
The analysis suggests that in total, nearly £392 million in potential estate agency revenue commission in England is lost through property transactions falling through, in addition to nearly £515 million in potential stamp duty receipts for the government.
Separate calculations for Scotland and Wales show that there is also a nearly £7m total economic opportunity for Scotland, and £23m opportunity for Wales by reducing fall throughs. These separate calculations consider the lower rate of fall throughs in Scotland, and the differing land taxes in the two countries.
The figures demonstrate the huge potential if even some of these property chains stayed together. Rightmove’s data shows that 6% of property transactions fall through and don’t come back to market within 12 months, while a much larger one in five transactions (23%) initially fall through before later completing successfully.
Rightmove believes that further digitisation and alignment of the home-moving process is key to enable a reduction in property fall throughs. Last year it took an average of five months in total for a house purchase to go through the legal completion process.
Responding to the government’s consultation on reforms to the home-moving process which closed at the end of 2025, Rightmove said that digitisation of the property sector and processes is essential for efficiency, transparency, and consumer confidence.
In that consultation, examples of faster and more digital transaction processes in countries like Norway, Finland and Estonia were included as part of its objective to improve the home-buying and selling process.
Rightmove also shared in its consultation response that providing comprehensive upfront information about a property listing in a consistent way could help to reduce fall-throughs, improve transparency, and support estate agents who have to hold chains together for elongated periods.
Johan Svanstrom, Rightmove’s CEO, commented: “Our analysis highlights the scale of the economic opportunity if fall through rates can be reduced. More than one in five (23%) transactions are affected by fall throughs, costing agents either lost or delayed fees and leading to some home-movers paying thousands in repeat costs. We believe that further digitisation can help to bring this number down. Addressing it will require government investment, innovation across the transaction process, and stronger industry collaboration.
“The home moving journey is still slowed down by many manual and fragmented processes. A seller shouldn’t need to list their home in April to move before Christmas. Our mission is to build the UK’s leading digital ecosystem for the entire moving experience, creating more opportunities for our estate agency partners and helping consumers move with greater confidence and speed. We believe a more effective system and increased mobility would add to overall economic growth in the UK.”
