The 5 facts hitting the housing market hardest in the last 7 days.
5FF 2nd October 2026
1. Mortgage approvals crash 19% in a month. Completed home sales fell 11% from July to August (HMRC, unadjusted: 96,250 vs 107,610), and mortgage approvals for house purchase fell 19% to 53,017, the weakest August since 2023 (BoE, unadjusted: 53,017 vs 65,591). Headlines using seasonally adjusted figures show approvals down just 1.8%. Fewer buyers with finance means longer chains, slower deals and more sales falling through. Everyone moving feels this.
HMRC: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/monthly-property-transactions-completed-in-the-uk-with-value-40000-or-above/uk-monthly-property-transactions-commentary–2
Bank of England: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/money-and-credit/2026/august-2026
2. Your First Home: 2.5% deposits, taxpayer equity loans, new builds only. Housebuilder shares jumped up to 15% the next trading day, which tells you who it’s really for. Negative equity the day you move in. A disappointing setback on the road to affordable homes.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-first-time-buyer-scheme-to-be-confirmed-at-budget
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/housebuilders-john-healey-budget-government-b3057561.html
My full take on Substack: https://movingcharlie.substack.com/p/labours-disappointing-setback-on
3. Average fixes hit 5.93% (two-year) and 5.94% (five-year). The five-year is the highest since October 2023. This constant repricing is dizzying for buyers, and their budgets have been cut. Sellers need to catch up.
https://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news/mortgage-rates-edge-closer-to-6-as-lenders-continue-to-reprice/
4. A quarter of homes listed in the past month were on the market in the last year, and six in 10 came back cheaper. Overpriced, failed to sell, back again. Overvaluing is a bigger problem than everything else put together.
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2026/10/quarter-of-newly-listed-homes-have-been-on-the-market-before/
5. Estate agents will need a licence and qualifications. That won’t fix overvaluing or long tie-ins, which are the real problems. It’s about the move, not the money.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-goes-further-to-protect-leaseholders
Bonus facts
• Zoopla: annual price growth slows to 0.8%, sales agreed are down 9%, and flat prices have been falling for 15 months. Prices easing gently is a free way to improve affordability.
https://propertysoup.co.uk/home-sales-fall-9-as-higher-mortgage-rates-hit-buyers/
• 71,959 sales fell through in the second quarter, costing movers £257.9m, or about £3,584 each.
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2026/09/fall-throughs-and-wasted-costs-increase-again/
• Lending with deposits under 10% is up 38% to £24.7bn, and lending with deposits under 5% has more than doubled. More debt, same old drug.
https://mortgagesoup.co.uk/low-deposit-mortgage-lending-climbs-38-to-24-7bn/
• Conveyancer numbers are down 15% as workloads pile up. Expect slower sales.
https://mortgagesoup.co.uk/conveyancer-numbers-fall-15-as-firms-face-mounting-workload-pressures/
• Purplebricks propped up again, with about £34m from its billionaire backers.
https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2026/09/purplebricks-bailed-out-by-billionaires-investment-report/
On my Substack this week
Labour’s disappointing setback on the road to affordable homes
I’ve written up my full thoughts on Your First Home on Substack. The government is asking the right question, because homes aren’t affordable, but more debt is the wrong answer. A 2.5% deposit on a new build means walking in the door into negative equity, and the subsidy goes into the price, not into making homes more affordable.
In the media this week
A September bounce is not a recovery (The Intermediary, 1 Oct)
Government confirms first-time buyer equity loan plans (Property Soup, 28 Sep)
This week’s livestreams
Housing market approaches peak pain as deal times reach a record. Last week’s 5FF. — Fri 25 Sep (9,823 views)
The Pros and Cons of "Your First Home" — Mon 28 Sep (8,762 views)
Mortgage approvals collapse 19% in one month. Live Q&A — Wed 30 Sep (4,301 views)
Most-viewed this week
X: Fall-throughs: an estimated 71,959 property transactions fell through in Q2 2026. (6,900 views)
TikTok: Be prepared so you can move quickly! (1,017 views)
Instagram: Hopefully the number of people feeling this way will scale up as BestAgent rolls out and helps people avoid bad advice. (911 views)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd3cFZ6m_Z-/
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