What just changed in the market
When mortgage rates move or a major lender or forecaster makes news, the question is the same: what does this mean for sellers right now? Our editorial team translates the news into action.
Prices fall 0.6% as rates rise to 4%: should I still sell?
On 6 November 2026 Lloyds reported that UK house prices fell 0.6% in October to an average of £296,285, a day after the Bank of England raised Bank Rate to 4%, its first rise since August 2023. If you are thinking of selling, this does not make selling a mistake, but it does mean the price you set has to be right for today's buyers from the first week.
Basildon semis and terraces hit record prices as rates rise again
Basildon's semi-detached and terraced homes reached record average prices in August 2026, £427,038 and £319,089, just before the Bank of England raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years. ValuQ's analysis of HM Land Registry figures shows the borough's flats and detached homes are still below their November 2022 peak, so the last rate cycle has not ended for every Basildon owner.
Houses hit record prices in 95 areas as flats are left behind
Terraced or semi-detached homes were at record average prices in 95 of Britain's 349 local areas in August 2026, but flats were at a record in only 14, and none of them in southern England, the Midlands or Wales. ValuQ's analysis of HM Land Registry's official house price index shows that even in London, where prices overall are falling, houses in nine outer boroughs are at records while flats in Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and the City sit about 28% below their peaks.
Will house prices go up in 2027? What it means if you're selling
Forecasts for 2027 now point in different directions: on 2 November 2026 Connells Group forecast a 1.5% rise, and on 4 November Savills forecast a 1.5% fall, with recovery from the second half of 2028. For someone thinking of selling, both are small next to the gap between areas and property types, which is why today's local evidence matters more than any national forecast.
Starter new-build sales halved when Help to Buy closed
Sales of new-build homes priced under the old Help to Buy caps fell by 52% in the two years after the scheme closed in March 2023, from 107,172 to 51,851 across England, ValuQ's analysis of HM Land Registry data shows. New builds above the caps fell 13% and second-hand homes 15%, and in the council areas that leaned on the scheme hardest, second-hand prices kept pace with their neighbours.
Basildon sold just 58 starter new builds in two years
In the two years after Help to Buy closed, Basildon sold 58 new-build homes under the scheme's old price cap and 2,259 second-hand flats and terraces, ValuQ's analysis of HM Land Registry data shows. That is 39 second-hand starter homes for every new one, so on recent evidence the new Your First Home scheme, which only pays towards new builds, will reach very few of the town's first-time buyers.
House prices flat in October: what it means if you're selling
Nationwide reported on 30 October 2026 that UK house prices were flat in October, at an average of £273,566, which is £5,314 (almost 2%) below the April peak of £278,880. If you are thinking of selling, this is a market that has stalled rather than one that is falling, and what your own home can reach depends far more on your street and your asking price than on the national line.
What the Budget means if you're selling: stamp duty unchanged
The Budget on 28 October 2026 left residential stamp duty rates and thresholds unchanged and did not raise the main capital gains tax rates, so nothing in it adds a tax to selling your main home. The measure that matters most to would-be sellers is Your First Home, a first-time buyer equity loan for new-build homes that starts in 2027 and does not apply to the resale home you are selling.
House prices now falling in 1 in 3 areas of Britain
On 21 October 2026 the official UK House Price Index showed average prices up 0.9% in the year to August, but ValuQ analysis of the same data found prices falling in 123 of 349 local areas in Great Britain, up from 73 in June. Flats are falling in nearly three areas in four, so whether your home has gained or lost value now depends on where it is and what type it is.
Rightmove October 2026: prices up 1%, but 1 in 3 homes cut
On 19 October 2026 Rightmove reported that average asking prices rose 1% in October to £371,015, yet 34% of homes for sale have already had a price cut. If you are thinking of selling, the price you start at now matters more than the headline: homes that needed a cut took 119 days to find a buyer, against 39 days for homes priced right from the start.
In Basildon, the step up to a detached shrank by up to £23,500
Moving up from a semi to a detached home in Basildon costs up to £23,500 less than in 2022, because the town's detached prices have stood still for four years while its terraces and semis rose by £20,000 to £25,000. ValuQ's analysis of HM Land Registry resales puts the step at £115,000 in Pitsea and Vange (SS13), down from £138,500.
Trading up to a detached got cheaper in the South East. Not the North.
Trading up from a semi to a detached home is £28,200 cheaper in London and £15,100 cheaper in the South East than in 2022, but £13,900 dearer in the North East, ValuQ's analysis of 732,140 Land Registry resales shows. Detached prices in London and the South East have stood still for four years while semis rose, so the gap shrank there and kept growing in the North.
More homes for sale, fewer buyers: RICS September 2026
On 8 October 2026 RICS reported that more homes came up for sale in September for the first time since mid-2025, while buyer enquiries weakened to a net balance of -22%. If you are thinking of selling, that means more competition for fewer buyers this autumn, so the price you start at matters more than the month you list.
Lane homes sell 9% above neighbours. Close homes sell 4.5% below.
Across 2.07 million houses sold in England and Wales since January 2023, a home on a Lane sold for 9% more than houses of the same type, sold in the same year, in the same postcode area, while a home on a Close sold for 4.5% less. That 14-point gap is about sixteen years of house price growth at the 0.8% annual rate Nationwide reported for September 2026.
A Basildon house on a Close sells 4.4% below its neighbours
Across 6,545 house sales in the Basildon borough since January 2023, a home on a Close sold for 4.4% less than houses of the same type, sold in the same year, in the same postcode area, while a home on a Road sold for 7.3% more. For a detached house the gap is wider still: 10.7% below on a Close and 13.2% above on a Road.
House prices flat in September: what it means if you want to sell
UK house prices were unchanged in September 2026, Lloyds reported on 7 October, with the average home at £298,441 and annual growth at 0.0%. For a would-be seller the average hides a split: the North West rose 3.1% while London fell 1.5%, so your local price matters far more than the headline.
One in six recently bought homes now resells at a loss
In the first half of 2026, 16.3% of England and Wales homes resold within five years of purchase sold for less than the owner paid, up from 4.5% in 2023 and the highest rate since 2013. That is 7,093 homes in six months and a combined shortfall of about £210 million, concentrated in flats, in homes bought in 2022 and 2023, and in the coastal and East Anglian counties.
In Basildon, one in seven recent buyers now sells at a loss
In the first half of 2026, 21 of 136 Basildon borough homes resold within five years of purchase went for less than the owner paid, 15.4% against 0.9% in 2016 and the highest rate since 2013. Flats and homes bought in 2022 and 2023 carry most of it, and the borough sits mid-table among Essex councils rather than at the bottom.
House price growth halves to 0.8%. What now for sellers?
On 1 October 2026 Nationwide reported that UK house price growth halved to 0.8% a year in September, down from 1.6% in August, the weakest rate since December 2025. Prices fell 0.2% in the month, so a home priced on summer evidence may now be asking more than buyers will pay.
Mortgage approvals hit their lowest since 2023. What now?
On 29 September 2026 the Bank of England reported 54,900 mortgage approvals for house purchase in August, the fewest since December 2023 and the fourth month in a row below 60,000. Buyers have not vanished, but fewer of them can borrow what they need at today's rates, so a seller's price and the strength of the buyer they accept matter more this autumn than the number of viewings they count.
The new 2.5% deposit scheme: what it means if you're selling
Your First Home, confirmed at the Budget on 28 October 2026, lets first-time buyers in England buy a new-build home with a deposit from 2.5% and a 20% government equity loan, starting in 2027. For most people selling an existing home the direct effect is small, because the scheme covers new builds only and cannot be used to buy your home.
Prices rose in September, but only 6 in 10 homes find a buyer
On 21 September 2026 Rightmove reported that average asking prices rose 0.7% to £367,440, the first monthly rise since May. The catch is the competition: the number of homes for sale is at a 12-year high for the time of year, and on average only 61% of homes that come to market find a buyer.
Basildon's 2021 buyers are up £52,800 as their five-year fixes end
Every one of the 3,370 homes bought in the Borough of Basildon in 2021 is worth more today on the local price index, with a typical gain of £52,785, ValuQ analysis of Land Registry sales finds. The exception to the comfort is flats: the typical 2021 Basildon flat is up just £5,388, as five-year fixes from that year end and the Bank of England weighs a rate rise.
Two in five flats bought in 2021 are worth less as fixes end
Nearly two in five flats bought in England and Wales in 2021 are worth less today than their owners paid, according to ValuQ analysis of 1,086,507 Land Registry sales, while fewer than one house in a hundred is. Those 2021 buyers are now coming off five-year fixed rates just as the Bank of England weighs its next rise.
House prices now falling in more than 1 in 4 areas of Britain
On 16 September 2026 the official UK House Price Index showed average prices up 1.4% in the year to July, but ValuQ analysis of the same data found prices falling in 97 of 349 local areas in Great Britain, up from 72 a month earlier. The national figure is holding up while the number of places going backwards has jumped.
Detached homes sell at a loss 60% more often than semis
Detached houses bought in the 2021 to 2023 boom have been selling below their purchase price 14.9% of the time, against 9.1% for semi-detached homes, according to ValuQ analysis of 78,815 matched Land Registry sales. The gap holds in every region of England and Wales, and it widens sharply above £450,000.
In Basildon, a losing sale costs a detached owner £41,750
When a Basildon detached home bought in the 2021 to 2023 boom sold below its purchase price, the owner gave up a median of £41,750, against £5,000 for a terraced home in the same position. ValuQ matched 496 Basildon sales in Land Registry records, and one in five detached resales went backwards while fewer than one in eleven semis and terraces did.
Buyer demand improved again. Fewer homes are queueing behind it.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors published its August survey on 10 September 2026, and it shows buyer enquiries improving for a fifth month running while the supply of homes lining up behind them is thinning. If you are weighing up an autumn sale, that combination matters more to your timing than the headline price number.
Small-deposit lending hit a 2008 high. What it means for sellers
On 8 September 2026 the Bank of England reported that 8.4% of new mortgage lending in the second quarter went to buyers borrowing more than 90% of a property's value, the highest share since the second quarter of 2008. For a seller, that means the pool of people who can afford your home is wider than it was a year ago, and more of those buyers are relying on the lender's valuation to get over the line.
Complaints about new homes tripled. What it means if you own one
On 7 September 2026 the New Homes Ombudsman Service reported that formal complaints from new build buyers rose from 593 in 2024/25 to 1,802 in 2025/26, a rise of 204%. If you own a new build and are thinking of selling, two things decide where you stand: the warranty, which attaches to the building, and the complaint window, which runs from the day you bought.
Lloyds says house prices fell. Nationwide says they rose.
On 7 September 2026 Lloyds reported that UK house prices in August were 0.4% lower than a year earlier, the first annual fall its index has recorded since November 2023. Nationwide, measuring the same month, reported prices 1.6% higher, so the two lender indices point in opposite directions for the same month.
The worst house on the best street is worth a tenth of what it looks like
Buying the cheapest home on your street appears to beat buying the dearest by 15.2 percentage points of price growth, worth about £31,000 on a typical Essex resale. ValuQ measured it on 133,764 resales without letting one sale price do two jobs, and the gap falls to 1.6 points.
Your home gained £5,000 this year. Your buyer can borrow £19,600 less.
The average home in England was worth £5,185 more in June 2026 than a year earlier. In the six months to July, the buyer for that same home lost £19,634 of borrowing power, because quoted mortgage rates climbed while the Bank Rate never moved.
A Basildon buyer's budget fell £22,400 since January. One in five homes went with it.
A Basildon buyer with a £36,000 deposit and £1,775 a month to spend could reach a £360,000 home in January. On July's mortgage rates that same buyer stops at £337,600, and 212 of the homes that sold across the borough last year, one in five of everything they could previously afford, sit in the gap.
A rate rise is back on the table. What it means for sellers
On 17 September 2026 the Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75%, but three of its nine policymakers voted for a rise and the Bank warned it stands ready to act, with inflation at 3.1% and forecast to pass 4% early next year. Lenders have already moved, pushing the average two-year fix to 5.73%, so the rate your buyer can get is rising even while Bank Rate stands still.
More than a third of auction homes did not sell in July
On 3 September 2026, figures from the Essential Information Group showed that 64.4% of residential lots offered at UK property auctions in July found a buyer, down from 69.6% in July 2025. More than a third of the homes entered into an auction that month came back unsold.
Mortgage approvals fell to a two-year low in July
On 1 September 2026 the Bank of England reported that 56,053 mortgages were approved for house purchase in July, the fewest since January 2024 and down from 58,215 in June. Interest in homes has not gone away, but the group of buyers who can borrow enough to act on it has thinned, so the strength of the buyer you accept now matters more than the number of viewings you count.
House prices rose in August. Asking prices fell.
On 1 September 2026, Nationwide reported that UK house prices were up 0.2% on the month and 1.6% higher than a year ago, at an average of £275,465. Two weeks earlier, Rightmove reported the biggest August fall in new asking prices for eight years, down 2.0% to an average of £364,999.
Essex homes are being valued on the thinnest sales evidence in 30 years
Fewer than one Essex home in ten sold in 2025 had three recent sales of its own property type in its own postcode to be valued against. In 2007 it was nearly one in four.
Buyer searches are at a 12-month high. Where are the offers?
On 27 August 2026, Zoopla reported that buyer searches across the UK are 7% higher than a year ago, the strongest annual rise in twelve months. Agreed sales are still running 6% below last year, so the interest returning to the market has not yet turned into offers.
One in seven homes sold within two years goes for less than it cost
Of the 49,996 homes in England and Wales that were bought and then sold again within two years, and completed between April 2023 and March 2026, 14.9% sold for less than the owner paid. Hold the same home for three years or more and that figure falls to 6.5%, and past ten years it is 3.1%.
Basildon punishes the quick seller and rewards the patient one
Of 102 Basildon homes bought and sold again inside two years, 23.5% went for less than the owner paid, against 14.9% across England and Wales. Hold a Basildon home for ten years or more and the loss rate falls to 1.0%, which is a third of the national figure.
Only half the homes that left the market in July had sold
On 28 August 2026, market analyst Chris Watkin reported that 51.3% of the homes that left estate agents' books in July exchanged and completed, while around 49% came off the market without selling, against a seven year average of 57.6% that sell. August figures published on 15 September show more listings converting to sales but agreed sales still down on last year, so pricing remains what separates the homes that sell from the ones that come off unsold.
One Essex home sold at £250,500 in eleven years. Here is why.
Until December 2014 stamp duty was charged on the whole purchase price, so a home at £250,001 cost the buyer £5,000 more tax than one at £250,000. New ValuQ analysis of 1,032,346 Essex, Southend and Thurrock sales finds that across the eleven years to that date, 4.73 homes sold in the £15,000 below the line for every one above it, against 1.14 at ten price points carrying no threshold. One year after the rule changed the ceiling was gone, and it has not come back.
House price growth slowed to 2%. What it means for sellers
On 19 August 2026 the Office for National Statistics reported that the average UK home was worth £272,000 in June, 2.0% more than a year earlier, down from 3.0% annual growth in May. Growth has now slowed for a second month running, and the gap between regions is wider than the national figure suggests.
Inflation rose to 2.9%. What it means if you're selling
On 19 August 2026 the Office for National Statistics reported that UK inflation rose to 2.9% in the year to July, up from 2.6% in June. The rise was expected, it sits on the Bank of England's own forecast path, and by itself it does not change whether now is a sensible time to sell.
Essex homes bought new resell £20,000 behind their neighbours
An Essex home bought new from a developer grows 10.8 log points less than an identical second-hand purchase in the same district and year, a typical £20,272 of price growth, and about half of that gap is the price of the home having been new.
Asking prices fell 2% in August. Rightmove cut its forecast
On 17 August 2026, Rightmove reported that the average asking price on a newly listed home in Britain fell 2% in August, down £7,360 to £364,999. That is the steepest August fall since 2018, and Rightmove cut its own forecast for the year from a 2% rise to somewhere between flat and a 2% fall.
Home sales jump 8% the month a two-year mortgage deal ends
Sales of the same home rise 8.25 per cent between the 23rd and the 24th month of ownership, the biggest step at any anniversary in the first ten years, and there is nothing like it at three, four or five years.
Revealed: the towns where the priciest homes are the ones losing money
In 102 of the 107 English and Welsh districts ValuQ could measure reliably, houses in the most expensive quarter of their local market resold at a loss more often than houses in the cheapest quarter. These are not mansions: the typical top-quarter house in the analysis cost £425,000.
Basildon's priciest homes gained half as much as its cheapest
Basildon houses bought since 2019 in the cheapest quarter of the local market earned 5.05% a year before they were sold again, while houses in the most expensive quarter earned 2.69%. The top end is the slower half of the town's market, but it is holding up far better than the top end of Brentwood or Chelmsford.
Arrears fell again. The forced-seller wave hasn't come.
On 13 August 2026, UK Finance reported that homeowner mortgage arrears had fallen for an eighth consecutive quarter and that repossessions were down 14% on the same quarter last year. If you are selling into a slow market and a buyer is leaning on you for a reduction because sellers are supposedly desperate, the lending data does not support that picture.
More homes are coming to market. Buyers haven't followed.
When this article was first published, the flow of homes coming to market had started to recover while buyer numbers sat still. The August 2026 RICS survey, published on 10 September 2026, changed that picture: buyer enquiries have now improved for a fifth month in a row, and it is the pipeline of homes behind them that has started to thin instead.
In Essex, your street decides more than your town does
Two like-for-like Essex homes in the same town, bought and sold in the same years, end up about 10.5 percentage points of price growth apart purely because of their street. The gap between the county's strongest and weakest towns is 8.1 points.
Four in five flats didn't sell within six months
On 11 August 2026, Zoopla reported that four out of five flats put up for sale in the UK failed to find a buyer within around six months, against roughly half of all homes. If your flat has been sitting there, the reason is usually structural rather than personal, and the things that move a flat are not the same as the things that move a house.
The base rate hasn't moved. Your buyer's mortgage has.
The Bank of England has left the base rate at 3.75% since 30 July 2026 and does not decide again until 17 September. Fixed mortgage rates have carried on rising anyway, with HSBC and NatWest both repricing upward in the first week of September, so the number shaping what your buyer can offer you has moved even though the headline rate has not.
78 towns where recent buyers sell at a loss more often than London
Britain's map of the trapped recent buyer does not centre on London. ValuQ analysed 263,470 homes in England and Wales that were bought and sold again within five years, and found 78 towns where sellers got back less than they paid more often than they did in London.
Brentwood's recent sellers lost money twice as often as Basildon's
ValuQ compared what 444 Basildon homes sold for with what their owners had paid for them within the previous five years, and found 10.4% went for less than the purchase price. In Brentwood the rate was 20.9% and in Chelmsford 18.8%, so the cheaper town has handled the last two years better than the expensive ones.