UK property market takes an unexpected 11% summer knock

The biggest talking point in the UK property market this week is the 11% drop in sales agreed from last week. Some summer softening is perfectly normal, but the size of this week’s fall was slightly unexpected, particularly after the previous two weeks had been unusually strong and had bucked the normal seasonal trend.

So, is this simply the summer holidays finally catching up with the market, or are we seeing the start of something more significant? One week certainly does not make a trend, especially after those two stronger weeks, but it is exactly the sort of movement that estate agents, sellers and buyers should be watching closely.

This week I am joined by Ian McKenzie from The Guild of Property Professionals to dig beneath the headline numbers in the YouTube video report. We look at listings, stock levels, price reductions, sales agreed, exchanges and withdrawals, before heading to Eastbourne to put its estate agents under the microscope using cold, hard performance data.

So, here are the main stats for UK Property Market Stats for week 31, week ending 9th August 2026.

Listings

Week 31…

31.5k new listings this week, (32.8k last week)

Weekly 2026 average : 36.6k

10 year week 30 average : 33.2k

Year to Date

1.113m new listings YTD

0.3% lower than 2025 YTD (1.137m)

3.4% ahead of 2024 YTD (1.096m)

10.7% higher than the 2017–19 average YTD (1.020m)

UK Gross Resi Sales

Week 31…

21.8k homes sold stc this week 31 (24.7k last week)

10 year week 31 average : 25.4k

2026 weekly average : 24.6k

Year to date for house sales

762k UK homes sold stc YTD

7.3% lower than 2025 YTD (821k)

0.7% lower to 2024 YTD (767k)

10.6% higher than 2023 YTD (689k)

6% higher above pre Covid 2017-19 years (718k)

Decade average – 758k YTD

UK Net Resi Sales YTD

(Net Sales being Gross Sales less Sale Fall Throughs).

Week 30

16.9k Net Sales (19k last week)

10 year Week 31 average: 19k

Weekly average for 2026: 19.1k

Year to Date

591k UK net home sales YTD

5.7% lower than 2025 (627k),

0.4% lower than 2024 (594k),

13.2% ahead of 2023 (523k)

4.2% above the 2017–19 average (567k)

Exchanges & Withdrawals

• 65.5k Exchanges in July 2026 (note this figure will rise during August as more exchanges get reported. On past trends, expect that to end on mid/ late 70k’s

• 63.4k Withdrawals in July 2026 – again, this figure will increase as more July withdrawals come thru the system throughout August

• Therefore, in July 2026, only 50.8% of homes that left agents’ books exchanged & completed in July (the rest – 49.2% withdrew, unsold)

• 57.6% is the 7 year average exchange to listings ratio (which includes the crazy years post lockdown 18 months)

Additional info…

Price Reductions

• 21.2k reductions this week on a 767k UK homes for sale

• 13.7% of UK homes for sale were reduced in July (down from 14.3% in June)

• 2026 YTD average 13%, versus the 6-year long-term average of 11.2%.

Price Difference between Asking Price of Listings & Asking Price of sold Homes (stc)

• 9.9% difference (long term 10 year average is 16% to 17%). (£396k ave Listing Ave Asking price vs £360k Sale Agreed ave Asking price)

Sell-Through Rate

• 14.2% of homes on agents’ books went SSTC in June ’26 (compared to 13.8% in June ’26)

• Pre-Covid average: 15.5%

Sale Fall-Throughs

• Fall-through rate 22.4%

• Decade average: 24.5%

• 5.07% of homes sold STC fell through in June 2026, below both the 2025 average of 5.3% and the 10 year average of 5.8%

Stock Levels

• 767k homes on the market on the 1st of August ’26 (760k the month before and 763k 12 months ago)

• 487k homes in agent’s sales pipeline on 1st August 2026, lower than 12 months ago on 1st August ’25 (508k)

House Prices (£/sq.ft)

• July ’26 agreed sales averaged £345.41 per sq.ft. 1.2% higher than 12 months ago (£341.43) and 11.9% than 5 years ago (£308.60). The £/sqft at sale agreed matches the HM Land Registry Index with a 98% accuracy, 5 months in advance. That is why it is so important.