Each stage of a stalled sale has its own causes, and the fix for one can be wasted on another.
The short answer
The usual answer to "why is my house not selling?" is that the sale is stuck at one stage. Buyers are not seeing it, not viewing it, not making offers or not staying the course. No enquiries points to exposure or the listing, and viewings without offers to price against condition. Low offers are about price. Repeated collapses are about the transaction.
A house that won't sell does not always need a lower price. Some do. Others have a listing problem, a missing-information problem or an agent problem, and cutting the price does not fix those. Your agent already holds most of the evidence that tells them apart.
Answer what you can. The result is the stage your sale is most likely stuck at and what to check first, taken from the guidance on this page.
Answer the enquiries, viewings and offers questions to see where to look first.
Most likely stuck at
Your answer is about days. TwentyCi puts the national average from listing to sale agreed at 82 days in 2026 so far, so you are within it.1 That is an average across very different markets. Ask your agent for the typical figure in your postcode and price band.
Your answer is about days. TwentyCi puts the national average from listing to sale agreed at 82 days in 2026 so far, so you are past it.1 That is an average across very different markets. Ask your agent for the typical figure in your postcode and price band. The time to worry is when you are well past that figure and the same stage keeps failing.
Reductions are common. TwentyCi found 38.3 per cent of listings concluded in 2026 so far had at least one.1
We found no published data on how large a reduction works, so we do not suggest a percentage. Use the sold prices you checked.
Across the market, TwentyCi found newly listed homes in Q2 2026 were priced on average 11.6 per cent above its automated valuations, against 5.7 per cent a year earlier.10 That is an average, not a measure of any one home.
Not sure which route suits you now? Answer three questions.
Start worrying when you are well past the typical time for your area and the same stage keeps failing. Nationally, TwentyCi puts the average time from listing to sale agreed at 82 days in 2026 so far, up from 81 days a year earlier. Exchange comes after a further wait.1
That is an average across very different markets. Ask your agent for the typical figure in your postcode and price band, and judge your home against that. We found no published benchmark for viewings in the first week or month, so a national rule of thumb is not much help.
Houses are selling more slowly in 2026 partly because more are for sale and fewer buyers are agreeing to buy. Rightmove reported in August 2026 that the number of homes for sale was at a 12-year high for the time of year, and buying activity was about 10 per cent below a year earlier.3 Zoopla's August 2026 index found 5 per cent more homes for sale than a year earlier and 6 per cent fewer sales agreed. Over the same months, mortgage rates rose from below 4 per cent in January to 4.8 per cent.4 This month's figures for sellers track the same measures.
In June, Rightmove said over a third of new listings do not go on to sell, which it said makes the starting price increasingly important. It also noted that summer is typically slower than spring, with buyers away on holiday or distracted by better weather.2 Monthly figures show the hardest month to sell a house. Conditions vary by region, too. Rightmove found asking prices rising in northern England and Scotland and falling in southern England, most of all in London.3
The market in 2026, by publisher
Match what is happening to one row, then read that section. If more than one row fits, fix the earliest one first. There is no point improving viewings if nobody is seeing the listing.
Where a sale that will not move is usually stuck
| What is happening | Likely causes | Evidence to ask for | What to change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Few or no enquiries | Not on the main portals, wrong price band in searches, weak first photo | Portal views and enquiries by week | Listing, portals, price band |
| People look online but do not book viewings | Price against what else is listed, missing information, photos, floor plan | Click-through from search results to the listing | Photos, floor plan, information, then price |
| Viewings but no offers | Price against condition, something found at viewing | Written feedback from every viewing | Condition, presentation, price |
| Offers, all well below asking | Asking price above recent sold prices | Sold prices for similar homes nearby | Price |
| Offers accepted, then sales collapse | Survey findings, buyer finance, chains, legal problems | The reason each sale failed | The cause. See our fall-through guide |
With almost no enquiries, check exposure before anything else, then check the listing is complete.
That last check has legal weight. National Trading Standards guidance says agents must not leave material information out of listings.5 The law behind it is now the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.6 A listing with gaps may put off careful buyers.
The price limits buyers can pick are set by each portal. When The House Desk checked Rightmove's search on 28 September 2026, its maximum price ran in steps of £10,000 through most of the range up to £300,000, then £25,000 steps up to £500,000.12 A home listed at £305,000 is not shown to a buyer whose maximum is £300,000.
No viewings usually means the listing is not persuading the buyers who open it. The price looks high against the other homes on the same results page, or the photos, floor plan or description leave buyers' main questions unanswered. Look at the homes listed around yours at a similar price and ask why a buyer would choose yours. Fix the photos, floor plan and missing information before you touch the price. They cost less to change.
In the first week, no viewings on a house calls for two checks with the agent. Ask whether the listing went live on every portal as agreed, and whether the agent contacted its own list of buyers. If both were done and the portal figures show views but no requests, the listing or the price is the likely cause.
Before agreeing to any cut, open each portal and run the search a buyer in your price range would, with the price filters set. If your asking price sits just above one of the fixed limits, the buyers who chose that limit never see your home. Moving under that line is a narrower decision than a general price reduction.
Haroon Ali Author, The House Desk. Over 11 years in property and renovation Viewings without offers mean the listing works but the home does not match what buyers expected at that price. Ask your agent for the written feedback from every viewing, in full. When ten viewings produce no offers, the pattern in the feedback matters more than any single comment.
| Pattern | What buyers are telling you |
|---|---|
| Condition | Repairs or dated rooms the photos did not show. Buyers price in what they would spend. |
| Something discovered | Noise, parking, a neighbour, damp, a boundary. If it is a fact about the property, it belongs in the listing. |
| Price against condition | The home is fine, but a better one is listed for the same money. |
Where the feedback is vague or all the same, ask the agent to phone two or three viewers directly. Vague feedback is itself evidence, often that viewers thought the price was wrong and did not want to say so.
Several offers at a similar level below asking price is a strong sign the market has priced the home. Check that against sold prices, not asking prices. HM Land Registry's free search shows the prices individual homes in England and Wales sold for.7 For Scotland it points to ScotLIS, and for Northern Ireland to Land and Property Services.7
This gives you a range to test the asking price against. It matters because asking prices across the market have drifted away from valuations, and TwentyCi, which measured the gap, says overpriced homes stay on the market longer.10
How far new listings were priced above automated valuations (TwentyCi)10
Reduce the price if the evidence points to price. That means offers clustered below asking, sold prices below your figure, or views without viewings once the listing itself has been fixed. Reductions are common. TwentyCi found 38.3 per cent of listings concluded in 2026 so far had at least one, up from 37.9 per cent in 2025.1 Rightmove found 32 per cent of existing listings reduced in May 2026.11
Rightmove also measured how long homes spent on the market with and without a reduction.11 In June it said sellers who start too high and cut later find it harder to regain momentum.2
Average days on the market (Rightmove, May 2026)11
Buyers who keep agreeing and then pulling out point to the transaction. The marketing has done its job. Collect the reason each sale failed. A survey finding that repeats across buyers is a property problem. Where that finding is structural movement, selling a house with subsidence covers how lenders treat it and which routes work. Finance and chain failures are usually buyer problems. Our guide to sales that fall through covers your legal position, what can be reused, and whether to change route.
Sometimes. Ask for the weekly portal figures, written feedback from each viewing, the sold prices behind the asking price and the reason every collapsed sale failed. An agent who cannot or will not provide them is making the problem hard to diagnose. If the agent does provide them and they all point to price, the agent may be right.
Before you move, read your contract. Sole agency terms, which give one agent the sale for a set period, can leave you owing a fee to the old agent as well as the new one. So can notice periods and introduction clauses. Our guide to changing estate agents sets out what to check and when.
Changing route makes sense when the stuck stage is one the open market will not fix. That might be a known defect that stops mortgage lending, a deadline the open market cannot meet, or repeated collapses for reasons that stay with the property. It does not make sense when the diagnosis is a fixable listing or an asking price above recent sold prices. A different route will not pay more than the market for the same home, and a direct buyer will usually pay less.
Check how the asking price sits against sold prices near you, and when you could leave your agent with the tie-in and notice checker.
Often because price was not the stage that was stuck, and a cut does nothing for a listing nobody sees or one missing basic information. Rightmove also said sellers who start too high and reduce later find momentum harder to regain. We found no published evidence on how big a cut works, so test the new figure against recent sold prices.
Price, most often, on the evidence published. In June 2026 Rightmove said over a third of new listings do not go on to sell, and tied that to getting the starting price right. TwentyCi adds that overpriced homes stay on the market longer. A smaller group have a problem the open market will not fix, such as a defect that stops mortgage lending.
In the order most readers should consider them, starting with the one that keeps you on the open market.
Not sure which fits? Answer three questions and we will suggest one.
Improve the listing, test the price against sold prices, or move to an agent who shows you their evidence.
The price is set by bidding. Can suit homes that are hard to value or hard to mortgage.
Certainty and speed, usually at a discount to open-market price. It does not fix a price problem. It accepts a lower price.
Three questions, about 30 seconds. Your answers stay in your browser.
Question 1 of 3
Your best fit
What you give up:
Why this route
Close second: Property auction.
Selling in Scotland works differently, with a Home Report and offers over a closing date. The guides note where Scottish rules differ.
Leave your details and tell us how you would like to sell.
While you wait, the guide covers what to check before you agree to anything.
Numbers in the text link to these. Each was read on the date shown. How we research