Housing market holds firm

Despite softer sales agreed, the stronger exchanges, fewer fall-throughs and improving rental supply – they all point to resilient demand for professional moving services. The latest data by TwentyCi demonstrates.

The UK housing market is facing tougher conditions, as expected. Our data suggests wider uncertainty, including tensions in the Middle East, is starting to affect SSTC performance.

That said, the outlook is not all negative, with new instructions, exchanges and fall-throughs offering some positive signs.

New instructions

Reviewing supply, the market is showing a continued appetite to move as new listings were up 0.5% compared to Q2 last year.

We’re seeing the biggest growth of properties come to the market in the £200k to £350K price bracket of 1.19%, followed by 0.48% in the £0k-£200k price band. In the current market, it might be assumed that affordability pressures are driving a significant proportion of supply from homeowners choosing to downsize, but these stats suggest the opposite.

Potentially, this is stock from landlords putting their properties up for sale before the Renters’ Rights Act came into force on 1st May, 2026.

Sales agreed and exchanges

When comparing Q2 2026 to Q2 2025, we can see sales agreed have slipped 5.8%. May and June experienced a notable softening, with sales agreed falling by 8%.

Regionally, Northern Ireland saw the largest decline in demand at 35.4%, followed by Inner London at 8.2%. However, breaking it down by major cities, both Edinburgh and Norwich registered gains. In terms of price bands, the most affordable stock (£0-£200k) took the biggest hit with a 2.44% fall in demand.

It is important to note that stamp duty incentives drove heightened market activity in early 2025, skewing year-on-year comparisons. This is reflected in the data: although exchanges were down in Q1 2026 compared with Q1 2025, they rose by 2.8% year-on-year in Q2 2026.

The exchanges that we were seeing in Q2 were more prevalent among higher-income households (in particular £100k+) than they were in Q2 2025. This means that more people were moving into high-value, larger properties, with more belongings to relocate and higher disposable income to spend on professional removal services.

Decrease in fall-throughs

We are also seeing a significant decrease in fall-throughs, with a decline of 8.7% quarter on quarter.

So, while there may be fewer buyers year to date, the buyers that are in the market are more committed and increasingly likely to proceed once an offer is agreed.

Rental

On the rental side, the biggest news story is that available stock has increased for the first time in five years. Though it is only a small rise of 2.9%, it offers a positive story for the lettings market, which has long been plagued by availability and affordability issues.

The market is still undersupplied, but we are seeing supply rise dramatically in Q2 2026 versus Q2 2025, with 16.7% more properties coming up for let. Demand for rentals also grew by 2.6% compared to the same period last year. Inner London and Northern Ireland were the only regions with falling demand.

Breaking down by major cities, Inner London, Southampton and Plymouth experienced a decrease in rental stock.

Conclusion

The housing market is proving more resilient than the headlines suggest. Still, the weaker trends and remaining challenges cannot be ignored. For that reason, our analysts have revised the 2026 transaction forecast from 1.2 million to 1.15 million.

This should be seen in context. The UK housing market moves in cycles, and periods of softer demand are often followed by recovery.