Estate agents can actively reduce fall through rates by providing enhanced information to buyers at the point of first marketing a property, new research shows.

Analysis of 1.2million listings between 1st January 2022 and 31^st December 2022 to understand the difference in fall through rates between agents who provide upfront data to purchasers and those who do not revealed some interesting findings.

The analysis suggests that overall, agents who do not provide advanced information average a fall through rate of 29.3%, compared with 25.4% for agents who do.

Matt Gilpin, CEO and Founder of Sprift, which carried out the study, said: “Data can’t and won’t ever be able to mitigate every situation in which either a vendor or a buyer decides to withdraw from the transaction prior to exchange, however what we can point to is a direct correlation between agents providing significant information to a buyer at that critical point of first engagement, such as our Key Facts for Buyers reports, and a reduction in average fall through rates.”

He added: “The debate still rages on as to whether or not legislation needs to change in order to mandate upfront searches or vendor-provided information by way of a completed BASPI or TA6 and TA10.  However, our data study unequivocally identifies that pulling together key elements, such as the boundary plan, flood risk, whether the property is in a conservation area or AONB, if there are any TPOs or flagging if the property is Listed and showcasing all of that information in a report that’s ‘user friendly’ for a consumer to understand, increases the agent’s success rate in terms of completed transactions.”