"Conveyancers and agents often blame missing searches, mortgage delays, and slow replies for stalled transactions, but these are only symptoms"
- Paul Halliwell - ViewMyChain
The number of property transactions falling through reached 214,052 at the end of August, the highest level since 2021, according to data from ViewMyChain.
The chain management platform reported this compared with 192,538 in 2024, 180,429 in 2023, 202,372 in 2022, and 220,644 in 2021. All figures represent January to August in each year.
This puts the current fall-through rate at 24.3%, the highest over the past five years, with the exception of 2023, which was impacted by market disruption following Liz Truss’ Mini-Budget in September 2022.
Average completion times are also extending. From agent instruction to completion now takes 216 days, while the period from sale agreed to completion is 139 days. ViewMyChain, which provides live chain visibility to CRMs, CMSs, and quoting tools, argues the findings show the need for visibility to be embedded across the sector.
Root causes and technology solutions
“Conveyancers and agents often blame missing searches, mortgage delays, and slow replies for stalled transactions, but these are only symptoms,” explained Paul Halliwell, executive director at ViewMyChain. “The root cause is that the chain itself is hidden. Professionals waste hours chasing updates on cases that cannot progress resulting in four million working days lost every year and £400m wasted in fall-through costs.”
“Policy, standards, and momentum have now aligned for impactful change to the transaction process,” Halliwell continued. “Invisible chains are no longer an unsolvable problem because the technology and integrations already exist to support transparency. In our pilot with a 1,000-branch national agency, chain visibility cut the time to exchange by an average of 17 days, achieved on a relatively light integration with their CRM – proof that even modest steps can unlock significant gains.”
Next steps for adoption
ViewMyChain says faster and more reliable completions depend on making transaction data visible within CRMs and case management systems. This would involve API integration supported by real-time interoperable feeds, rolled out at scale to cover every link in the chain. Without such measures, the company warns, outdated records and fragmented systems will continue to create bottlenecks.
The organisation is calling on platforms to embed visibility features into workflows and build intelligence directly into core systems.
“Forward-thinking practices must start pushing their CRM providers for chain visibility features, participating in pilot programmes, or demanding integration capabilities that support transparency,” Halliwell commented. “The opportunity is significant. Cutting completion times will save thousands of wasted professional hours, reduce fall-throughs, and restore consumer confidence. Chain visibility will become standard in CRMs and CMSs but first it will take coordinated action from platforms, firms, and industry stakeholders to embed it fully, ensure real-time data accuracy, and scale it across the entire market.”
