Aneisha Beveridge, research director at Hamptons and Connells Group, said: “While fall-through rates have been edging up across the market, what’s changed over the last year is when sales are collapsing.
“Our analysis shows that sales are increasingly unravelling much further down the line, with nearly half of all fall-throughs now happening after the 90-day mark, often just weeks before exchange.
“Later fall-throughs tend to be more disruptive, more expensive and far more emotionally draining.
“Rising exchange times are a big part of the story.
“Today, it takes an average of 113 days to exchange contracts after an offer is accepted – nearly four months of uncertainty, during which time more complications can arise.
“And the longer a sale drifts, the riskier it becomes: deals that haven’t exchanged within 140 days become increasingly vulnerable to collapsing altogether.
“As timelines stretch, buyers’ finances have more time to change, mortgage offers run closer to expiry, and chains face more exposure to a single link breaking.
“Some types of sales are particularly fragile in this environment.
“Flats tend to be more prone to delays, often because issues uncovered in leasehold packs or building paperwork take longer to resolve.
“Chain-based sales are also more exposed, with a single setback reverberating through multiple linked transactions.
“Ultimately, the later a sale breaks down, the greater the financial and emotional cost.
“Reducing fall-throughs means shortening the journey to exchange – better up-front information, earlier legal preparation and faster data sharing would all help ease the pressure.
“Until then, longer transaction times will continue to heighten risk and push more fall-throughs into the most painful part of the process.”
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