Zoopla says three in five homes for sale remain unsold as demand weakens

Higher borrowing costs have left Britain’s housing market unusually stuck, with three in five homes listed for sale since January still sitting unsold as fewer buyers come through. Zoopla said sales agreed in the latest four-week period were 7% lower than a year earlier, while buyer demand fell 15%, a sign that elevated mortgage rates and political uncertainty are thinning the pool of active movers.

The slowdown is uneven, but the strain is clearest in parts of the country where demand has dropped fastest. Zoopla’s latest House Price Index showed sales agreed were down 12% in Wales and 11% in the East Midlands, while the biggest fall in buyer demand came in the West Midlands, where it dropped 30% from the same period last year. That leaves many listings lingering longer than sellers expected, even as committed buyers still close deals in better-positioned areas.

The weakest part of the market is the lower end. More than two-thirds of one- and two-bedroom flats listed in 2026 were still unsold, Zoopla said, because first-time buyers in that segment are being hit hardest by higher purchase costs. Earlier Zoopla research said first-time buyers were targeting homes worth £10,000 more than a year ago and accounted for 39% of all sales in 2025, a reminder that affordability pressures are changing both the size and the type of home that many buyers can reach.

Even so, prices have not cracked. Zoopla said average UK house prices in June 2026 stood at £271,900, up 1.5% on a year earlier, suggesting that the market is cooling without yet turning into a broad price fall. In April 2026, the average time to sell a home was 33 days, only one day longer than the year before, which shows that the weakness is concentrated in the parts of the market most exposed to stretched affordability rather than in every sale.

Zoopla has said housing activity was holding up despite uncertainty and higher borrowing costs, but the balance is fragile. With more than half of new listings still unsold and demand running below last year’s level, the market is being kept alive by buyers who can still secure financing, while sellers on the wrong side of the affordability squeeze wait longer for offers that used to arrive faster.