One in three property sales falls through. Here's what the government is doing about it.

Roughly a third of property sales in England and Wales collapse before completion, costing buyers and sellers around £400 million a year in wasted legal fees, surveys, and mortgage costs. The average sale currently takes aroud 120 days from offer to completion — plenty of time for something to go wrong.

The government's response, confirmed in June 2026, is a shift toward upfront "sales packs" — sellers preparing key information (searches, a property condition report, leasehold details) before a property is even listed, rather than gathering it after an offer's already been made. The idea is simple: surface problems early, before they can collapse a chain three months in.

A related change already affecting listings: under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, agents are now legally required to disclose material information upfront — leaving it out isn't just bad practice anymore, it's a legal risk.

And for leasehold specifically — a genuinely interesting stat: 78% of estate agents say they've taken a leasehold property off the market in the last two years because it was effectively unsellable, with high service charges cited as the main barrier. Leasehold reform is coming, but slowly — only a fraction of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 has actually been implemented so far.