Buyer searches are up 7% year on year, the strongest annual rise in twelve months, according to Zoopla. If you're an agent, that sounds like good news. So why do sales agreed still sit 6% below where they were last year? The autumn market isn't quiet, it's just being more careful about which conversations actually turn into offers.
This perspective comes from Benjamin Jobbins, Head of Group Account Management at Dezrez. Benjamin has spent 24 years working in estate agency, including running multi-branch operations at a national level. His front-line experience gives a clear, practical view of what today’s market shifts really mean for agents.
The market is active, just more selective
The headline numbers all point the same way: activity is genuinely picking up, even if it doesn't always feel like it on the ground.
- Nationwide's August index put annual house price growth at +1.6%
- Rightmove recorded 65 homes on the market per agent in July, a 12-year seasonal high
- The Bank of England recorded 62,700 purchase approvals, up from 56,100 the previous month
- Zoopla reported buyer searches up 7% year on year, the strongest annual rise in 12 months
Interest is returning faster than transactions are following it. And because stock per agent is at its highest for this time of year in over a decade, that renewed demand is being spread across a lot more property.
That's why pricing has moved to the centre of almost every conversation agents are having with vendors right now.
Asking prices are under real pressure
Average asking prices fell from £378,304 in May to £364,999 in August, a 2.0% drop that's the largest fall for August in eight years. More choice has clearly shifted the balance toward buyers.
The takeaway for agents: winning the instruction was never the hard part. Winning it at a price the market will actually respond to is the real challenge this autumn, and it's worth having that conversation with vendors before the listing goes stale.
Why buyers are hesitating: the affordability squeeze
Mortgage approvals eased to 56,100 in July, down from 58,200 in June and well below the 65,905 recorded in July 2025. The effective rate on new mortgages reached 4.45% in July, and the average five-year fix at 75% loan to value sat around 4.8% in August.
The knock-on effect is real: buyer purchasing power is down roughly 9% since January. On Zoopla's example, the same monthly payment that supported a £200,000 mortgage in January now supports closer to £182,000.
That's a meaningful shift in a matter of months, which is exactly why an agreement in principle from a few months ago can't be trusted at face value today. Re-qualifying buyers isn't just due diligence anymore, it's what keeps a sale from falling through at the worst possible moment.
There's a note of optimism in among all this: RICS's latest survey put 12-month sales expectations back into positive territory, even though near-term buyer enquiries are still negative. In other words, the trade thinks this converts, just not quite yet.
What this means for your instructions this autumn
There's stock. There are buyers. There is lending available. The job now is connecting all three at a price that actually makes people act. Four things worth focusing on:
- Price to transact. With stock at a 12-year high, an over-valued instruction can turn stale within weeks, not months.
- Work the buyer. Search activity is climbing. Turning that interest into viewings and offers, rather than letting it browse and drift, is where the real opportunity sits.
- Manage affordability. Mortgage rates and purchasing power are both moving quickly. Qualify buyers early, and re-qualify them if a sale is taking time to progress.
- Have the vendor conversation early. Use viewing feedback and comparable evidence to guide a price review as soon as it's needed, not after weeks of silence have already dented a vendor's confidence.
The market hasn't disappeared this autumn. It's become more selective, and the agents who get ahead of that shift, rather than reacting to it, are the ones who'll keep instructions moving through to completion.
Want to see how Dezrez helps agents price with confidence, follow up buyer interest automatically and keep vendors in the loop before the silence sets in? Book a demo or talk to our sales team today.
Sources: Nationwide House Price Index (August 2026); Rightmove House Price Index (July 2026); Zoopla House Price Index (four weeks to 16 August 2026); Bank of England Money and Credit statistics; RICS UK Residential Survey.
