Autumn Housing Rebound Fails: Agreed Sales Fall 11% in Q3

By Lisa Hayes · 20 October 2026

Landmark Information Group's latest quarterly data says the autumn bounce never arrived. Across England and Wales, agreed sales were down 11% in July to September compared with the same months last year, and completed sales were down 7%. If you were hoping September would rescue the year, it didn't, and the practical lesson for anyone selling now is that you are competing for a smaller, warier pool of buyers.

The figures come from Landmark's Residential Property Trends Report for Q3 2026, reported by The Intermediary, Property Industry Eye and Law News. I have read all three and I will tell you what the numbers say, what they don't say, and what I would do about it if I were in your shoes.

• -11%agreed sales (SSTC), Q3 2026 vs Q3 2025
• -7%completed sales, England and Wales
• -12%conveyancer search orders
• -2%new listings, with September level on last year

What did the Landmark Q3 2026 report actually say?

Landmark collects data from the property search and conveyancing process, which makes it a useful cross-check on the more headline-friendly price indices. It tracks what is happening to deals, not just asking prices. Here are the England and Wales figures for July to September 2026 against the same quarter in 2025, as reported:

Measure	Change vs Q3 2025	What it tells you
Sold subject to contract (agreed sales)	-11% (quarter average)	Fewer buyers committing to a purchase
Completed transactions	-7%	Fewer deals finishing, which lags agreed sales
New listings	-2% (September level with 2025)	Supply is holding up
Mortgage valuations	-7% in August, -2% in September	Mortgage-backed demand improved a touch late in the quarter
Conveyancer search orders	-12% (quarter average)	Fewer purchases starting down the legal route

Two details matter. First, agreed sales did rise between August and September, which is normal for the time of year, but the rise was smaller than in 2025. Second, the September lift in search orders that you would usually expect simply did not show up. Landmark's own people read that as a market where buyers are not in a hurry.

For context on the earlier part of the year, Law News reports Landmark's Q2 agreed sales were down 7% and search orders down 8%, and in Q1 completions were down 18% with agreed sales down 8%. Q3 is therefore not a sudden collapse. It is a market that has been sluggish all year and has now missed the moment when it normally picks up.

Why did the autumn recovery fail to arrive?

Nobody at Landmark claims a single cause, and I would be wary of anyone who does. But the quotes in the coverage point the same way.

Simon Brown, Landmark's chief executive, said: "The market remains subdued, and there is little in this quarter's data to suggest that will change in the near term." Property Industry Eye says he pointed to borrowing costs, global uncertainty and speculation about property tax changes ahead of the Autumn Budget.

Elizabeth Jarvis, Landmark's divisional director of legal and search, put it more bluntly: "Market conditions are giving little incentive for buyers to commit to a transaction." That is the polite version of what an awful lot of buyers are saying to their partners at the kitchen table.

Mike Holden, Landmark's divisional director of growth, added a nuance I found genuinely interesting. He said changes in mortgage rates influence when people act, and that when lenders raise rates, brokers move quickly to secure existing offers for their clients. In other words, rate moves can pull activity forward and then leave a hole behind it. A bump in applications is not always a sign of confidence. Sometimes it is people jumping before a door closes.

The mortgage rate backdrop

The wider data fits. According to the Enact Conveyancing October update, the Bank of England held the base rate at 3.75% on 17 September, with the next decision due on 5 November 2026. The same roundup cites a Bank of England lender survey, published on 8 October, showing weaker demand for mortgages to buy homes and reduced availability for buyers with smaller deposits. Zoopla's September index, meanwhile, describes the highest mortgage rates in three years squeezing buying power.

Put plainly: base rate being steady is not the same as mortgage rates being comfortable. Lenders price off longer-term funding costs, not off the base rate alone, and plenty of buyers are being asked to stretch to a monthly payment that would have looked eye-watering two years ago. If you want a refresher on the jargon, our property jargon explained page is a good place to start.

Is this about prices or about volume?

This is the question I would want answered if I were selling, and the honest answer is that this report is about volume. Landmark's figures describe how many deals are being agreed, started and completed. They do not give you a price direction.

The two things are related, of course. When fewer buyers are around and there is decent stock, sellers have less leverage. The Enact roundup cites Nationwide's September figure of house prices 0.8% higher than a year earlier, down from 1.6% in August. That is still growth, but barely, and it is the kind of growth that disappears the moment a house is overpriced. It is also worth remembering that an index of average prices tells you nothing about your street, your type of home, or the particular day you go on the market.

Zoopla, per the same roundup, reports 5% more homes available for sale and 9% fewer sales agreed than a year earlier. Landmark's agreed-sales figure is 11% lower. Different datasets, different methods, same direction. When independent sources line up like that, I stop treating it as noise.

What is happening in Scotland?

The Landmark figures for Scotland make a useful contrast, because they come with government policy attached. According to the reporting, Scottish listings were 8% lower than a year earlier, and sales agreed subject to missives were also 8% lower. Completions were down 9%. Landmark also noted a shift towards fixed asking prices and away from "offers over" pricing.

First-time buyer incentives were introduced by the Scottish Government at the end of June. Landmark says they have not yet produced a sustained rise in activity. Richard Hepburn, Landmark's director of Scotland, said: "Having homes available does not automatically bring buyers back to the market." I would underline that sentence and stick it on the wall of every estate agency in the country. Stock does not create demand. Affordability does.

One caution for anyone cross-reading: Law News also reports that Q3 2025 had been strong in Scotland, with sales agreed up 4% and completions up 10%. So part of the 2026 fall is a tougher comparison. Year-on-year numbers are always partly a story about last year.

Why are longer transactions a problem for sellers?

The report's most useful line for anyone with a sale in progress is the one that doesn't come with a number. Mr Brown said: "Longer transactions in a quieter market make the need for reform even clearer." The coverage I read does not give a specific completion time, so I am not going to invent one. But the direction of travel is clear, and it matches the pattern we have been covering for a while, including our recent look at what it costs to sell a house fast.

Why would a quieter market make deals slower, not faster? A few reasons, none of them mysterious:

• Buyers are cautious. Ms Jarvis says buyers need confidence to keep progressing. A buyer who is wobbling will take longer to answer a query, request a re-negotiation, or quietly pull out.
• Chains are fragile. A chain of four or five households needs everyone to stay confident at once. That is rare in a market like this.
• Fewer cases does not mean a lighter workload. Rob Gurney of Ochresoft, a Landmark business, said exactly that about conveyancers. Fewer files can still mean more chasing, more re-work and more fall-throughs to handle.

If your sale has already hit this wall, our guide to what to do when a house chain collapses is worth keeping handy.

What does it mean if I am selling in the next few months?

Here is my view, and you are welcome to disagree with it.

Buyers who are active right now are serious. They have survived higher rates, a lot of noise about the Budget and months of waiting. They also know they have choice. With listings near last year's level and agreed sales well below it, a home that is priced optimistically will sit. That is not a prediction, it is just arithmetic: more homes per buyer means each buyer gets to be pickier.

So the first job is to price honestly. Look at what has actually sold nearby, not what is listed. Use a few sources and compare. Our guide on how much your house is worth walks through it, and our house prices page has broader context.

The second job is to make your sale easy to say yes to. Landmark's Ms Jarvis urged conveyancers and agents to share property information earlier. As a seller you can do the same thing yourself. Get your title documents, guarantees, FENSA certificate and any building regulation paperwork lined up before you list. Every query you answer in advance is one fewer reason for a nervous buyer to wobble.

The third job is to be realistic about timing. If you need to be out by a particular date, assume the sale may run longer than the agent's brochure suggests and build in slack. That might mean a second route as a back-up. Some people choose to get a firm cash offer on the table alongside a traditional listing. It will usually be lower than the best-case open market price, so it is a trade-off, not a free lunch. But for a seller facing a deadline, certainty has real value. Our guide to cash house buyers explains how that works and what to watch for, and selling a house fast covers the whole route.

Should I wait for the Budget before I sell?

I get this question a lot at the moment, and I understand it. Mr Brown cited speculation about property tax changes ahead of the Autumn Budget as one of the reasons for caution. Zoopla's September index and the Enact roundup also point to the Budget as the next big date for the proposed Your First Home scheme, which the roundup describes as a 2.5% deposit and government equity loan for eligible first-time buyers on new-build homes in England. Eligibility and launch dates are still to be confirmed.

My view: waiting for a rumour is a poor basis for a house sale. If you are not under time pressure, waiting a few weeks to see what the Budget actually says is reasonable. But "wait and see" has a cost too. Buyers are doing the same, which is partly why the market is quiet. If the Budget turns out to be a non-event, you will have lost weeks. If it contains something unwelcome, you may have lost a good buyer. I would not make a big decision on a hunch either way, and I would absolutely not sell below what you are comfortable with just because of a headline.

What should different kinds of sellers do now?

If you are not in a hurry

You have the luxury of choice. Price at the realistic end, present the home well, and be willing to hold your nerve. If your home has not drawn serious interest within a few weeks, look at the price and the photos before you blame the market.

If you need to move by a date

Plan for delays, and decide in advance what you would accept if the traditional route stalls. It is much better to compare your options while you are calm than after a buyer has pulled out the week before exchange. You can compare offers from vetted buyers without committing to anything.

If your home needs work

Buyers with finance stretched thin will not pay for jobs they have to do themselves. Either fix the obvious problems or price with the work in mind. Our guide on the best way to sell a house that needs updating goes through both approaches.

If you are in a chain

Talk to everyone in it. Fragility in a quiet market usually shows up as silence. If your buyer's solicitor has not moved in a week, find out why. Do not wait for bad news to arrive on its own.

How worried should you be about the 12% fall in search orders?

Conveyancer search orders are one of the earliest signs that a purchase is moving. A buyer's solicitor orders local authority, drainage and environmental searches shortly after an offer is accepted. Landmark's figure of 12% fewer search orders is therefore a rough preview of what completions will do over the coming months, with the usual lag.

The Landmark reporting does not forecast completions, and I will not either. But if search orders are weak and the September rise did not happen, there is little reason to expect completion volumes to surge in the weeks ahead. Ben Robinson, managing director of Landmark Estate Agency Services, suggested September's seasonal uplift may reflect delayed decisions coming through rather than genuine renewed confidence. That is an honest bit of hedging and I think it is right. One month of a modest improvement in agreed sales does not make a trend.

What does this mean for house prices?

Landmark's report is not a price report, and it would be wrong to say it forecasts falls. What it does say is that demand is soft and transactions are slow. In most markets that combination puts a lid on price growth, because it is harder for sellers to push for the top of the range.

There is a useful distinction here between asking prices and prices achieved. Asking prices can drift up or hold steady because sellers do not like to cut. Achieved prices tell the real story, and they tend to lag. So the headline index figure for any one month may look fine while negotiations on the ground are getting tougher. If you are buying and selling in the same market, remember that the sale and the purchase are linked. A softer sale price is partly offset by a better deal on what you buy, which is why moving up the ladder can be less painful than it looks.

For sellers who are downsizing or releasing equity, the trade-off is different. You are not buying another home at similar prices, so you feel the full effect of softer buyer demand. That is a reason to be organised and sensible about timing, not a reason to panic.

Is this a bad time to sell?

It is a harder time to sell, which is not the same thing. Plenty of people need to sell regardless of the market: a relocation, a separation, an inheritance, a job change, or simply a home that no longer fits. For them, the right question is not "is the market perfect?" but "what is the best way to sell given the market I have?"

I would also gently push back on the idea that you can time this perfectly. Nobody forecast the last three years accurately, including the people paid to do it. If your reasons for moving are strong, they probably outweigh the small gains you might make by waiting for a recovery that Landmark itself says it cannot see yet.

What is the outlook?

Landmark's own view is cautious. Mr Brown said there is "little in this quarter's data to suggest" a change in the near term. The next landmarks are the Bank of England's decision on 5 November and the Budget, both of which could shift sentiment in either direction. I would treat both as events to react to, not events to predict.

Mr Brown also called for reform, saying success "must be measured by shorter transactions and greater certainty for buyers and sellers", according to Law News. Any change to the home-buying process would take time to arrive, so don't plan your own sale around it. In the meantime, the sensible approach is the dull one: price properly, prepare your paperwork, keep your buyer warm, and have a plan B.

How to compare your options without pressure

If you have read this far, you are probably weighing up whether to list traditionally, wait, or look at a faster route. All three are legitimate. The mistake is deciding without seeing the numbers. Ready Steady Sell is independent, so we are not trying to push you down one road. You can get a no-obligation look at what quick-sale buyers might offer through our free comparison, and set that against what you expect on the open market. If the numbers favour the traditional route, great. If certainty matters more, you will know what it costs.

Lisa Hayes is the founder of Ready Steady Sell. This article is general information, not financial or legal advice. All figures are as reported by the sources cited at the time of writing.