Is the Scottish system of buying a home better?
This map is a stark reminder of where the English and Welsh home buying system still lets people down.
Across England and Wales, between roughly one in five and more than one in four agreed sales fall through before exchange and completion. That is not down to poor agents, bad buyers, or flaky sellers. It is down to a system that delays certainty until far too late in the process.
Homes are agreed sold before surveys are done, before full mortgage checks are complete, and before legal enquiries are resolved. Until exchange, either side can walk away with little consequence. That long gap between sale agreed and exchange is where confidence drains, chains wobble, and deals collapse.
This is why pricing correctly, qualifying buyers properly, and managing momentum after sale agreed are not optional extras. They are core skills. In England and Wales, the real work of an estate agent often starts after the offer is accepted, not before.
The uncomfortable truth is this. Until the system changes, fall throughs will remain a structural issue. The best agents do not eliminate the risk entirely, but they reduce it by setting expectations early, pushing speed where it matters, and never letting a deal drift.
If you would like to find out why we are able to mitigate sale fall throughs better than others, let’s chat?
