Buyer Demand Down 10%: Rightmove's Warning for Home Sellers

By Lisa Hayes · 11 November 2026

Rightmove, the UK's biggest property portal, has told the City that buyer demand on its site is down 10% and sales agreed are down 9%, with average asking prices now 0.3% lower than a year ago. It also cut its 2026 revenue forecast. For anyone thinking of selling this winter, that's the clearest signal yet that the market has shifted from slow to properly buyer-led, and that pricing and timing now matter more than they have in years.

I'm Lisa Hayes, and I spend most of my working week looking at what happens to real sales once the headlines fade. This one deserves more attention than it got. Trading updates from listed companies don't usually make the evening news, but a portal that sees almost every property listing in the country is about as close as we get to a live thermometer for the housing market. When that thermometer says demand is down by a tenth, I listen.

So let's go through it properly: what Rightmove actually said, why it matters more than the monthly price indices, how it fits with the rate rise and the other data we've had this month, and what you should actually do if you own a home you want to sell.

What exactly did Rightmove announce?

Rightmove plc published a trading update on 6 November 2026, the morning after the Bank of England's rate decision. According to Property Industry Eye's report, the headline housing figures were these:

• Buyer demand fell 10%. This is Rightmove's measure of people actively contacting agents and looking to buy.
• Sales agreed fell 9%. In other words, fewer deals are actually getting over the line.
• Average asking prices were 0.3% lower at the end of October than they were a year earlier.
• The average five-year fixed mortgage rate on Rightmove's tracking climbed from 5% at the end of June to 5.5% by 31 October.

On the business side, Rightmove trimmed its 2026 revenue growth guidance to 6% to 7%, down from 6% to 8%. It also cut its forecast for average revenue per advertiser, and said that cut was down entirely to weaker spending by housebuilders. New-build developments on site were 6% lower at the end of October than in December 2025, and the company expects its New Homes revenue to fall below last year's level.

Chief executive Johan Svanström struck a confident note about the company itself. "Our core membership remains stable with strong partner retention levels," he said. Estate agency retention was 92% at the end of October, down from 93% a year earlier.

That's the company's story, and it's a perfectly reasonable one for shareholders. But it isn't your story. Your story is the first four bullet points.

• -10%buyer demand on Rightmove
• -9%sales agreed
• -0.3%asking prices vs a year earlier
• 5.5%average five-year fix, 31 October

Why does a portal's trading update matter more than a price index?

Because it measures behaviour, not just price.

House price indices are lagging indicators. The Halifax and Nationwide figures are based on mortgage approvals at the point of lending, which means they reflect deals that were negotiated weeks earlier. The ONS and Land Registry figures lag even further, because they wait for completions to be registered. By the time a price fall shows up in official statistics, the buyers who caused it stopped turning up months ago.

Demand and sales agreed are different. They tell you what is happening in the hallway of an estate agent's office right now: how many people are booking viewings, and how many of those viewings turn into an accepted offer. When those two numbers drop by 9% to 10%, the price indices tend to follow.

There's a second reason. Rightmove has a commercial incentive to sound upbeat. Its customers are estate agents and housebuilders who pay to advertise, and its investors want to hear that the business is resilient. So when a company with every reason to accentuate the positive tells the market that demand is down a tenth and cuts its revenue guidance, I'd treat that as a candid admission rather than a gloomy forecast.

If you want to understand how prices in your own area are tracking, our UK house prices 2026 guide pulls the main indices together in one place.

Why are buyers pulling back?

The short answer is the cost of borrowing. The longer answer has three parts.

1. Mortgage rates rose before the Bank did

Rightmove's own figure shows the average five-year fix moving from 5% to 5.5% between the end of June and the end of October. That rise happened before the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee lifted Bank Rate to 4% on 5 November. Lenders price fixed deals off swap rates, which move on expectations, so they had largely baked the rate rise in already.

Moneyfacts says its Average New Mortgage Rate rose to a three-year high of 5.89% at the start of November. Bank of England data shows the effective rate on new mortgages rose to 4.63% in September. Neither of those numbers sounds dramatic in isolation. But on a £200,000 repayment mortgage over 25 years, my own sums put the jump from 5% to 5.5% at roughly £59 a month, or about £700 a year, and buyers feel that immediately.

2. Fewer mortgages are being approved

Bank of England figures show mortgage approvals for house purchase fell for a third month in a row to 53,443 in September. That's the lowest since December 2023 and almost 20% below a year earlier. Approvals are the pipeline for future sales, so a 20% drop there tells you the 9% fall in sales agreed on Rightmove isn't a blip.

3. Inflation is squeezing household budgets

Consumer price inflation is running at 3.5%, and the Bank of England has said it expects it to rise further, towards 5%. When the weekly shop, energy bills and childcare all cost more, the amount a household can comfortably commit to a mortgage shrinks. Lenders' affordability tests do the same job from the other direction.

Put those three together and you get exactly what Rightmove is describing: buyers who are still interested (more on that below) but who are slower to commit, more selective and less willing to stretch.

How does this fit with the other housing data this month?

It fits very neatly, and that's what worries me. When different sources measuring different things all point the same way, it's usually a trend rather than noise.

Indicator	Latest reading	Source
Buyer demand	Down 10%	Rightmove trading update (via Property Industry Eye)
Sales agreed	Down 9%	Rightmove trading update
Average asking price, end of October	0.3% lower than a year earlier	Rightmove trading update
House prices, October (monthly)	Down 0.6%	Lloyds House Price Index
House prices, annual	Down 1.2%	Lloyds House Price Index
House prices, annual (October)	Up 0.5%, weakest since January 2024	Nationwide
Mortgage approvals for house purchase (September)	53,443, lowest since December 2023	Bank of England
Effective rate on new mortgages (September)	4.63%	Bank of England
Average New Mortgage Rate (start of November)	5.89%, a three-year high	Moneyfacts
Bank Rate	4%, first increase in over three years	Bank of England

You'll notice Nationwide still shows prices slightly up on the year while Lloyds shows them down. That's not a contradiction. They use different mortgage books and slightly different methods, and at turning points they often disagree by a percentage point or so. What matters is the direction, and both are heading the same way: Nationwide's annual growth is the weakest it's been since January 2024.

Emeritus Professor Joe Nellis, writing in Introducer Today, put it bluntly: "The UK housing market is on life-support and likely to remain so for the next 12 months." I'd go slightly less dramatic than that. Homes are still selling every day. But I wouldn't argue with the direction of travel.

Is it really as bad as "demand down 10%" sounds?

Here's where I want to be fair, because headlines on both sides of the housing debate love a big number.

A 10% fall in demand is not a collapse. It means that for every ten buyers who would have enquired about your home a year ago, nine are enquiring now. In most areas that is still a functioning market. What it changes is the balance of power. When there are fewer buyers per home, each buyer has more choice, more time and more leverage to negotiate.

There's also a figure in Rightmove's update that cuts the other way. The company said mortgage-in-principle submissions through its platform were up more than 50%. I'd be careful with that one. It's a measure of a Rightmove product being used more, not proof that the market is about to bounce. But it does suggest there's a pool of would-be buyers getting their finances lined up and waiting for the right moment or the right price.

And asking prices being 0.3% down on the year is, frankly, modest. Sellers haven't panicked. Most are still asking roughly what they would have asked last autumn. The question is whether buyers will pay it.

Why does the new-build slowdown matter to ordinary homeowners?

It's easy to skip past the housebuilder detail in Rightmove's update, but I think it's one of the most revealing parts.

Rightmove said its forecast cut for average revenue per advertiser was entirely down to weaker housebuilder spending, and that the number of new-build developments on site was 6% lower at the end of October than at the end of 2025. Housebuilders are usually the most aggressive marketers in the business, because they need to keep sites moving. When they cut back their advertising, it's because sales rates have slowed and they're protecting margins.

Why should you care if you're selling a three-bed semi from the 1970s? Two reasons. First, new-build sites compete with you for the same buyers, especially first-time buyers, and when developers are struggling they tend to offer incentives such as paid deposits, stamp duty contributions or upgraded kitchens. That raises the bar for second-hand homes. Second, the government's new Your First Home scheme, announced in the Budget and backed by £4.7 billion, is aimed at helping around 70,000 first-time buyers in England buy new-build homes from April next year. That could pull some first-time buyers towards new-build sites and away from older homes in 2027.

What does this mean if you're selling your home?

This is the part that matters, so I'll be direct.

Your home will probably take longer to sell

Fewer buyers and fewer sales agreed means longer time on the market. That isn't speculation: it's what a 9% fall in sales agreed means in practice. Fine & Country, the upmarket agency network, said this week that around 60% of property stock takes at least six months to complete the sales process. Six months is a long time to have your life on hold.

If you need to be out by a particular date, for a job move, a care home place, a divorce settlement or a new-build completion, start earlier than you think you need to. If you want to see how long homes like yours are actually sitting, our guide on how to check how long a property has been on the market shows you how to look it up.

Price for the market you're in, not the one you remember

The single biggest mistake I see in a cooling market is overpricing at launch. Sellers anchor on what the neighbours got in 2024 or what an agent quoted to win the instruction, then spend three months reducing in small steps while the listing goes stale.

Buyers on Rightmove can see how long you've been listed and every reduction you've made. A home that launches at a realistic price tends to attract the most attention in its first two weeks, when it's new. A home that drops 2% three times looks like a problem. If you're unsure what your home is genuinely worth today, rather than what you'd like it to be worth, our guide to valuing your home walks through how to get a figure you can trust.

Expect more negotiation

When demand falls by a tenth, buyers know they have options. Expect offers below asking, more requests for price reductions after surveys, and more conditions attached. That isn't buyers being difficult. It's buyers responding rationally to a market that has more stock than takers.

Decide your real walk-away figure before the first offer lands. It saves a lot of agonising later.

Chains are more fragile

Every link in a chain needs a mortgage, and every mortgage is now more expensive and slower to approve. That means more chains break. If your buyer's buyer's mortgage offer expires or their lender re-values the property, your sale can wobble even if your own buyer is solid. Our guide on how to repair a broken property chain is worth reading before you accept an offer, not after.

What should you do now?

There's no single right answer. It depends on why you're selling and how much time you have. But here's how I'd think about it.

If you don't need to move

You have the luxury of waiting. If you're not under pressure, there's no shame in sitting tight through the winter and reviewing in the spring, when activity usually picks up. Just be honest with yourself that spring 2027 might not be better on price. Rate cuts don't look likely while inflation is heading up, and Savills, for one, has already downgraded its price forecast for next year.

If you want to move but have some flexibility

List with a well-chosen agent, price realistically from day one, and give it a fair run of eight to twelve weeks. Get your paperwork ready before you list: title documents, any FENSA or building regulation certificates, warranties, and leasehold information if it applies. A seller who can hand over a complete pack is more attractive to a nervous buyer. Our conveyancing guide for sellers covers what to have ready.

It's also worth checking what you'll actually pay to sell. Our breakdown of estate agent fees in 2026 will help you compare like with like.

If you need to sell quickly

This is where a slower market bites hardest. If you have a deadline that can't move, the open market may not get you there in time, and waiting for the right buyer can cost more in mortgage payments, bills and stress than you'd save on price.

In that situation it's worth comparing your options side by side. That might mean a sharply priced agency listing, an auction, or a sale to a cash buyer. Cash buyers can complete in weeks rather than months because there's no mortgage and no chain, but they pay less than full market value, so you need to know exactly what you're trading. Our guides to cash house buyers and what percentage of market value cash buyers pay set out the real numbers, and the sell house fast page explains how the different routes compare.

What I'd never recommend is accepting the first cash offer you get. Offers vary widely between companies, and some quote high then cut the price at the last minute. Compare several, read the terms, and check what happens if the survey comes back with issues.

If your home has already been on the market a while

If you listed in the summer and you're still waiting, the market has moved against you since then. Rightmove's figures say that five-year fixes rose half a percentage point between June and October alone. A price that made sense to buyers in July may not make sense now. Our guide on how to sell a house that won't sell goes through the options, from a reset launch to switching agents to a guaranteed sale.

Are mortgage rates going to come down?

Not quickly, in my view, and I'd be wary of anyone who says otherwise.

There are some small positives. Moneyfacts reported that several lenders, including Nationwide, Virgin Money and Lloyds Bank, trimmed fixed rates in early November, and that the lowest five-year remortgage rate dipped slightly to 5.05%. Rachel Springall of Moneyfactscompare.co.uk said "lenders could well pivot away from making aggressive rises over the coming weeks". But she also warned that "most of the damage is unlikely to unwind entirely".

That's the right way to see it. Those headline best-buy rates are mostly for borrowers with 40% equity or more and come with fees of around £999. The typical buyer of a family home, with a 10% or 15% deposit, is paying well above them. With inflation at 3.5% and the Bank expecting it to rise, it's hard to see a quick path back to the sub-5% world that a lot of buyers are still mentally waiting for.

So if you're holding off selling because you expect rates to fall and buyers to flood back, I'd gently suggest you plan for the market we've got, not the one we'd like.

What about the moves to speed up sales?

One genuinely positive thread this week: Skipton Building Society and Connells, one of the UK's largest estate agency groups, announced they are joining the National Property Transaction Network built by LMS. The idea is to collect property, identity and financial information once and share it securely between lenders, agents and conveyancers, rather than everyone requesting the same documents again and again. It's linked to the government's Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap.

I welcome it. Anything that cuts the dead time in a sale helps sellers in a slow market, because every week a sale sits in the legal process is another week for a buyer to get cold feet. But I'd temper expectations: as Property Industry Eye noted, the companies have provided no figures on how much time it could save and no timetable for a wider rollout. It won't speed up your sale this winter.

What's the outlook for the next six to twelve months?

Rightmove itself expects 2027 revenue growth to be broadly in line with 2026. That tells you the company is planning for more of the same, not a sharp recovery and not a crash.

That matches my own read. Here's what I'd expect, with the honest caveat that nobody gets this exactly right:

• Prices: flat to modestly lower nationally over the winter, with more pressure on flats and in areas where buyers were already stretched. I don't see a crash: most homeowners are on fixed deals, and forced selling is what turns a slowdown into a slump.
• Sales volumes: subdued. With approvals almost 20% down on last year and sales agreed falling, transaction numbers will stay weak into 2027.
• Time to sell: longer. Expect more homes to sit for months rather than weeks, especially where they were priced optimistically.
• Rates: sticky. Some lender trimming at the margins, but no return to cheap money while inflation is rising.

For homeowners, the lesson from every previous slowdown I've seen is the same. The sellers who do best are the ones who accept the market as it is early, price to sell, and move on with their lives. The ones who struggle are those who wait for last year's price to come back.

The bottom line

Rightmove's trading update didn't make front pages, but it should have. When the country's largest property portal says buyer demand is down 10%, sales agreed are down 9% and asking prices have slipped below last year's level, that's the market speaking plainly. Combined with the rate rise to 4%, falling mortgage approvals and a softening in the main price indices, it confirms that sellers are now operating in a buyer's market.

That doesn't mean you can't sell. It means you need to be realistic, prepared and clear about your priorities: top price, speed or certainty. You can usually have two of those three, rarely all of them.

If you'd like to see where you stand, you can compare offers and get a free valuation in a couple of minutes. It's independent, there's no obligation, and it'll give you a realistic starting point before you decide on your next move.