Buyer demand dries up for flats and high-end homes
Only a quarter of homes priced above £2m that reached an outcome in Q3 2026 were successfully sold, according to TwentyCi.
TwentyCi’s latest Property & Homemover Report found that just 25% of £2m-plus properties achieved a sale, highlighting the challenges facing the upper end of the housing market.
Buyer demand was also weaker for higher-value homes. For every 100 properties priced above £2m that came to market, only 36.8 sales were agreed, compared with 68.5 agreed sales for homes valued below £2m.
Properties above £2m also took significantly longer to attract buyers, with an average selling time of 131.7 days in Q3, versus 73.3 days for homes below that threshold.
Flats face weaker buyer demand
The report also pointed to continued weakness in the flat market.
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Nationally, the likelihood of a flat selling fell to 41.2% in 2026, down from 44.2% in 2025 and 54.2% in 2022. As such, almost three in five flats taken off the market this year were withdrawn without a sale.
Demand for flats has also weakened relative to houses. In Q3 2024, the demand-to-supply ratio stood at 64.3% for flats compared with 75.3% for houses. By Q3 2026, this had fallen to 55% for flats, while houses recorded a ratio of 72.2%.
Scotland was the only region where flats were easier to sell than houses, with likelihoods of sale standing at 84.4% and 80.4%, respectively.
Fall-throughs in agreed sales also remained a challenge for flat owners.
Flats have consistently been more likely than houses to see transactions collapse, with Wales recording the highest flat fall-through rate in Q3 2026 at 33%. Yorkshire demonstrated the starkest disparity, with flats over 50% more likely to fall through than houses.
Colin Bradshaw, CEO of TwentyCi, said: “The housing market cannot be understood through headline transaction volumes or average property prices alone. Our latest research highlights how sharply the likelihood and speed of a sale can vary, with flats facing increasing challenges and properties at the top end of the market taking considerably longer to find buyers.
“For mortgage lenders, this reinforces the importance of understanding the dynamics of the individual property and its local market when assessing security. A valuation provides an essential benchmark, but insight into current supply, demand and selling times can add another valuable dimension to understanding the risks associated with a property.”
