The summer selling season isn’t delivering the bounce many agents hoped for. Nearly 99,000 UK homes were sold subject to contract during the first four full weeks of June, a 9.4% fall compared with the same period in 2025, according to fresh data from Property Industry Eye’s weekly market tracker.
The numbers demand context, though. That June 2026 total still sits above the 92,000 sales agreed during the equivalent period in 2023, even if it falls short of the 103,000 recorded in 2024. This isn’t a market in freefall. It’s a market recalibrating after the stamp duty holiday-driven rush of early 2025.
The year-to-date picture tells a more measured story. Some 620,000 UK homes have sold subject to contract so far in 2026, 6.6% fewer than at this point last year. But gross sales remain 0.8% ahead of 2024, 11% above 2023, and 7.9% higher than the pre-Covid 2017 to 2019 average of 575,000.
Strip out the sales that collapsed before exchange and net sales stand at 484,000 for the year. That’s 5% below 2025’s pace but still 12.4% ahead of where the market sat at this stage in 2023.
Put simply: 2025 was the outlier, inflated by the stamp duty deadline. Measured against any other recent year, 2026 is holding its ground.
New listings totalled 35,400 in the most recent week, marginally below the 2026 weekly average of 37,300 but right in line with the ten-year average. Year to date, 931,000 new listings have come to market, identical to this point in 2025 and 4.7% ahead of 2024.
That steady supply, combined with slower absorption, means stock is building. Some 747,000 homes sat on the market at the start of June, while agents’ sales pipelines held 472,000 properties, broadly level with the 474,000 recorded a year earlier.
For sellers in Norwich and across Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and the wider Norfolk market, the message is clear: pricing accurately from the outset matters more than ever when buyers have plenty to choose from.
The proportion of homes requiring a price reduction continues to run above historic norms. In May, 13.4% of all homes for sale had been reduced, compared with the six-year average of 10.7%. Some 25,800 reductions were made in the latest week alone.
There’s a revealing statistic buried in the data. The average asking price of newly listed homes stands at £442,000, while homes that actually sell are asking £375,000 on average. That 17.9% gap between listing price and the price at which buyers commit sits above the ten-year average range of 16% to 17%.
Overpricing isn’t just optimism. It costs sellers time, and in a market where withdrawals are running high, time often costs money.
May’s withdrawal figures underscore the cost of getting it wrong. Around 64,000 homes were withdrawn from the market during the month, meaning 45.2% of all properties that left agents’ books went unsold.
The sell-through rate, the proportion of listed stock that actually goes under offer, sat at 14.6% in May against a pre-Covid average of 15.5%. Not dramatically below trend, but enough to confirm that buyers are being selective.
The probability of a listed property reaching exchange and completion stood at 54.8% in May, below the seven-year average of 57.6%. The fall-through rate, at 23%, actually sits below the decade average of 24.5%, suggesting that deals which do proceed are relatively solid.
Despite softer activity, underlying values continue to edge higher. Agreed sales in May averaged £349.64 per square foot, 1.9% above the same month last year and 13.2% higher than five years ago. This metric, which tracks closely with HM Land Registry data, suggests that while headline asking prices may overreach, the prices buyers actually pay are still gently rising.
For homeowners in Wymondham, Attleborough and Thetford, that’s a quietly reassuring signal. Ivybridge’s 324-location property market reports show this pattern playing out at local level: values firm where homes are priced realistically, stagnant where they aren’t.
The data paints a market that’s normalising rather than deteriorating. Transactions are down from last year’s elevated levels but still healthier than any year before 2024. Prices per square foot keep climbing, fall-through rates are controlled, and net sales comfortably exceed pre-pandemic norms.
The sellers who’ll fare best this summer are those who read the room: price keenly from day one, present well, and recognise that in a market with 747,000 competing listings, standing out on substance rather than aspiration is what separates a sale agreed from a withdrawal notice.
