Four in five flats didn't sell within six months

What did Zoopla actually find?

Zoopla's analysis, reported on 11 and 12 August 2026, looked at how many flats listed for sale went on to find a buyer within roughly six months. Across the UK, 80.5% did not. Across all property types the figure was closer to half.

Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, put it plainly: "It is not easy out there if you are trying to sell a flat." The pattern is worst where flats are most common.

Why are flats selling so much slower than houses?

A flat is rarely sold as a home alone. Leasehold is a form of ownership where you own the property for a fixed number of years while someone else owns the building it sits in, so the buyer is taking on a lease, a running cost and a building, and their lender looks at all three. Five things do most of the damage.

• Lease length. A short lease narrows the pool of lenders willing to touch the flat. Zoopla's analysis found about one in five leasehold listings has under 100 years left to run.
• Service charges. A service charge is the annual sum a leaseholder pays towards the running of the building. Zoopla puts the typical figure at around £1,900 a year, with ground rent of about £200 on top, and a buyer treats that as a permanent bill when they work out what they can afford.
• Building safety. Cladding and fire safety paperwork can still hold up a flat sale in blocks that need it, because a lender wants the position evidenced before it commits.
• Lender caution on leasehold. Underwriting on leasehold flats has tightened, so a buyer who is fine on paper can still be refused on the building.
• Reform uncertainty. Leasehold reform is in motion, and some buyers are waiting to see where it lands before committing to a leasehold home.

How wide is the gap between houses and flats now?

The widest in three decades, on Zoopla's numbers. Since 2016, the average house has risen 43% while the average flat has risen 10%. That is one home type carrying the market and the other standing still.

Zoopla's July 2026 House Price Index, published on 30 July 2026, showed the same split in miniature: flats and maisonettes down 1.7% over the year at an average of £192,200, while semi-detached homes rose 1.9% and terraces rose 1.7%. UK growth overall was 1.3%.

A flat that will not sell is usually carrying a question the buyer cannot answer. Answer it before they ask, and the flat starts moving.

What should I do if my flat isn't selling?

Price is the last lever, not the first. Work through the paperwork and the presentation of the lease before you take money off, because a discount on an unanswered question just buys you a nervous buyer.

1. Order the leasehold management pack now rather than when an offer arrives. It is the single most common cause of a flat sale drifting for weeks after agreement.
2. Get the exact remaining lease term in writing and put it in the listing. Buyers assume the worst when it is missing.
3. Publish the service charge and ground rent figures, and the last two years of accounts if you have them. A known cost is easier to buy than an unknown one.
4. If the block has had building safety work or an assessment, have the documents to hand and say so up front.
5. Ask each agent to show you the flats they have sold in the past year in buildings like yours. Selling a flat in this market is a specific skill, not a general one.
6. Only then look at price, and look at it against what other flats in the block have actually sold for rather than what they are asking.

Would cutting the price fix it?

Sometimes, and plenty of sellers are trying. Sprift's July 2026 market data, reported on 11 August 2026, showed 31.3% of listings nationally had been reduced, rising to 43.6% in the South East. The same data put the average time on market at 155 days and showed 209,941 new listings against 114,561 sales agreed in the month.

So a reduction alone is no longer distinctive. The flats that sell are the ones where the buyer can see the lease, the costs and the building position without having to dig.

Where does ValuQ fit in?

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents. For a flat, that comparison is the point: you can see which agents have a real answer for the lease, the service charge and the building before you hand any of them the instruction, and you stay anonymous while you decide.