Nearly a quarter of homes sold since 1995 lost money in real terms

Research by ValuQ: we took every home in England and Wales that has sold more than once since 1995, 13.7 million completed buy-then-sell round-trips in HM Land Registry data, and converted each purchase and sale price into today's money using the official ONS inflation index. This is part of the ValuQ Property Watch series.

Nearly one in four sales lost money once you remove inflation

In cash terms, housing looks almost loss-proof: only 7.8% of these homes sold for fewer pounds than the owner paid. Inflation changes the picture completely. Once you account for it, 22.8% sold for less buying power than they cost. Nearly one in four. The number on the completion statement went up while what it could buy went down.

That 22.8% is a conservative floor. We cannot see money spent extending or refurbishing a home between its two sales, and that spending lifts the resale price for reasons that have nothing to do with the market. After the normal costs of buying and selling, stamp duty, agent fees, legal fees and moving, the real-terms loss rate rises to about one in three.

This lands as the wider picture turns. Analysts at Rathbones noted in June 2026 that UK house prices have been losing value in real terms and trailing other investments. Our data shows that is not new and not evenly shared. Whether a home gained or lost in real terms has always depended on when, and what, you bought.

The year you bought decided almost everything

The strongest predictor of whether a home made or lost money in real terms is not the region or the type. It is the year it was bought. People who bought in the late 1990s almost never lost. People who bought at the 2007 peak lost more often than not.

Flats lost money most often

Not all homes carried the same risk. Flats lost money in real terms far more often than any kind of house, partly because most are leasehold and a shortening lease is a slow drag on value, and partly because flats led the slowdown of recent years.

What it means if you are selling

1. A higher price is not a profit. Convert your likely sale price into today's money before you treat it as a gain.
2. When you bought is the first thing to check. If you bought between roughly 2004 and 2008, or in 2021 and 2022, the odds of a real gain are far worse than the cheerful averages suggest.
3. Count the costs. Stamp duty, fees and moving turn a thin paper gain into a real loss for a large minority of sellers.
4. If you own a flat, look harder, and price from recent local evidence rather than hope.
5. Get more than one genuine local valuation and compare them side by side. The owners who get hurt are usually working from a single optimistic number.

ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, and the seller stays anonymous until they choose to connect. It is free for homeowners, always. The point is simple: know the real number before you decide anything.