Nearly half of homes listed in past three years failed to sell as owners are pricing them TOO high

The new data is surprising, with more than two in five homes put on the market in the last three years failing to sell.

Housing market stagnates due to economic uncertainty and high rates interest rates Many potential buyers lack the motivation to go out and look for a new home, putting a strain on their home budgets.

But a bigger problem, according to property website Zoopla, which conducted the research, is that sellers are setting unrealistic prices that put potential buyers off.

In a survey of 2,000 people who listed their homes with a real estate agent in the past three years, a whopping 44 percent said the property had never sold.

Of these, 34 percent admitted that their asking price was ‘too high’ in retrospect.

53 percent of sellers said they had to lower their prices before finding a buyer.

In the first three months of this year, homes listed on Zoopla generally sold for 3.5 per cent below the asking price. This is a cut of £18,800 on an average priced home.

Zoopla has urged sellers to price their homes reasonably to avoid them sitting on the market for too long and causing buyers to think there is something wrong with their home.

For every 5 percent that a home is priced above the local market average for a similar home, its odds of selling decrease by about 5 percent.

A home priced 10 percent above the interest rate reduces its chances of selling by 10 percent.

On the other hand, competitively priced homes generally attract more buyers, increasing the likelihood of a bidding war that could drive up the final sales price.

Richard Donnell, chief executive of Zoopla, said: ‘The average homeowner selling in 2025 had been in their home for nine years, meaning many homeowners are unaware of the value of their home.

‘Sellers need details – and this is where talking to a few trusted local agents who know the area and buyers who are actively looking can guide sellers on how to price and market their home for a sale.’

Zoopla also found a generation gap in how much people value their own homes.

A fifth of sellers under the age of 35 admitted they had knowingly overpriced their home, perhaps because they wanted to make more money to buy a bigger home and move up the housing ladder.

But this approach may have backfired, as just over half (52 percent) of those under 35 actually managed to make sales.

This shows that more than a third of people over 65 are listing their home because they want to downsize; This is a move that generally does not require extra money. Of these, 63 percent successfully sold their property.

Toxic rental homes negatively impact the housing market

It is also possible that young buyers may have difficulties in selling, especially due to the decreased appetite for rental apartments.

Almost four in 10 flat sellers in England and Wales got less than they paid for in 2025, according to a Hamptons analysis of Land Registry data; This analysis excluded those who had owned their apartment for more than 20 years.

Separate data from estate agent group Connells reveals that rental properties are a drag on the housing market, even if they sell.

It is taking much longer to buy and sell rental homes due to increasing concerns about issues such as service charges, ground rents and cladding.

This has contributed to a four-week increase in trading times on the market since April 2019, Connells said.

A typical rental home took 155 days to reach exchange in April 2026; this was 58 days longer than a freehold property.

And 23 percent of failed sales now collapse after three months, up from 18 percent in 2019.

The deeper a person goes into the home buying process, the more they typically lose in legal, survey and other related fees when things go wrong.

Connells Group research director Aneisha Beveridge said: ‘For the first time on record, a sale is taking on average more than 100 days to progress from accepted offer to exchange.

‘Extra checks, longer chains and stricter legal and compliance requirements all increase time; Private property purchases are the biggest contributor to delays.’

This has increased calls for accelerated changes to homeowners’ rights.

Katie Kendrick, spokesperson for the National Letting Campaign, said: ‘Leaseholders have been warning the Government for many years that the lettings system would bring the buying and selling process to a halt. This is exactly what we are seeing emerging right now.

‘As pressure mounts, leaseholders will not forgive the failure to deliver reform in this Parliament. ‘People have waited long enough.’

The government has committed to resolving some of the issues surrounding leasehold and there are numerous changes at various stages of the legal system.

Ground rents have been effectively banned on new homes since 2022, and existing rentals are planned to be capped at £250 – but this isn’t possible until 2028.

Landlord lobby groups also argue that changing existing lease terms would harm their financial interests and could lead to the collapse of companies that make money by owning property, including pension funds.