UK Property Market Bounces Back After Last Week’s Summer Wobble

After last week’s unexpected drop in sales agreed, the UK property market has bounced back. 24,435 homes went sold subject to contract in Week 32, up from around 21,700 the week before and much closer to where we would expect the market to be at this point in August. The evidence increasingly suggests last week’s fall may simply have been the summer slowdown arriving slightly earlier than usual, rather than anything more sinister.

Yet beneath that headline, the market remains brutally price sensitive. Around half the homes leaving estate agents’ books are still withdrawing unsold, while four out of five homes listed and sold so far in 2026 achieved that sale without needing a price reduction. The message is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, getting the pricing strategy right from the beginning matters enormously.

This week I am joined by Iain White, one of the property industry’s most experienced operators, to dissect the numbers and discuss where estate agents are getting it right and wrong. Then we head to Oxford, where we use cold, hard data to compare its estate agents on market share, exchanges, withdrawals, pricing, fall-throughs and the prices they actually achieve for their sellers and see who is the best Estate Agent in the City.

The main stats for UK Property Market Stats for week 32, week ending 16th August 2026.

🟩   Listings

Week 32 ..

32.6k new listings this week, (31.5k last week).

Weekly 2026 average : 36.4k. 

10 year week 30 average : 33k 

Year to Date

1.166m new listings YTD  

0.3% lower than 2025 YTD (1.169m)

3.2% ahead of 2024 YTD (1.130m)

10.5% higher than the 2017–19 average YTD (1.059m).      

🟩  UK Gross Resi Sales

Week 32 ..

24.4k homes sold stc this week 32 (21.8k last week)  

10 year week 32 average : 25.2k

2026 weekly average : 24.6k.

Year to Date for house sales 

786k UK homes sold stc YTD

7.1% lower than 2025 YTD (846k)

0.7% lower to 2024 YTD (792k)

10.8% higher than 2023 YTD (709k)

6% higher above pre Covid 2017-19 years (742k).

Decade average - 784k YTD

🟩 UK Net Resi Sales YTD 

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

Week 32

18.2k Net Sales (16.9k last week) 

10 year Week 32 average: 19.1k.

Weekly average for 2026: 19.1k. 

Year to Date

609k UK net home sales YTD 

5.7% lower than 2025 (647k), 

0.4% lower than 2024 (612k), 

13.5% ahead of 2023 (537k)

4.2% above the 2017–19 average (585k).     

🟩   Exchanges & Withdrawals

•           79.6k Exchanges in July 2026 (note this figure will rise during August as more exchanges get reported).

•          76.3k Withdrawals in July 2026  – again, this figure will increase as more July withdrawals come thru the system throughout August

•           Therefore, in July 2026, only 51% of homes that left agents’ books exchanged & completed in July (the rest - 49% withdrew, unsold)

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

🟥 Want more in-depth analysis on these stats ??

Watch this week’s episode (week 32) of the ‘UK Property Market Stats Show’ with Iain White eon YouTube here …

https://youtu.be/kEJkCxSpnCY

At the 3rd Letting and Estate Agent Conference in Grantham, John Cottrell, talks about The 5 Things holding Estate/Letting Agents back in life

John Cottrell - Voted Action Coach's (Action Coach - the World's No.1 Business Coach Franchise) Best Executive Business Coach for Europe, Middle East and Asia 2016

This guy knows his onions!

52 minutes long - prepare to be interested, intrigued and educated!

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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.

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 Thrus). 

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). 

🟥 Want more in-depth analysis on these stats ??

Watch this week’s episode (week 31) of the ‘UK Property Market Stats Show’ with Iain McKenzie from The Guild on YouTube here …

https://youtu.be/j9zaCOfQ_GI

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