The usual housing market slowdown seen in the run-up to Christmas has started early, according to a property website.<\/p>\n
Demand from home buyers and agreed sales are down compared with a year ago, Zoopla said.<\/p>\n
It added that the annual dip has been amplified by a strong final quarter in 2024, when many people rushed to complete sales before stamp duty discounts became less generous in April 2025.<\/p>\n
The report said that uncertainty over the autumn Budget is acting as a drag on sales agreed, particularly for homes priced above \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n
Some parts of Britain are seeing stronger sales than a year ago, such as Scotland, Yorkshire and the Humber, the South West and the West Midlands, Zoopla said.<\/p>\n
A view of Edinburgh, as Zoopla said that Scotland is one of the areas where house price growth remains robust (Jane Barlow\/PA Archive) <\/p>\n
But Wales, the South East, East of England and London are experiencing a particularly sharp slowdown in new sales being agreed, the website added.<\/p>\n
House price growth has \u201cvirtually stalled\u201d across southern regions of England, limiting price increases, Zoopla said.<\/p>\n
But house price growth remains \u201crobust\u201d in areas including Scotland, Wales and northern regions in England, it said. Northern Ireland has seen house price growth of 7.6%.<\/p>\n
The average time to find a buyer for a home is around 37 days, rising to 45 days in London, Zoopla said.<\/p>\n
While the market for new business has started to slow, Zoopla estimated there is a pipeline of nearly 350,000 homes, valued at over \u00a3100 billion, working through the sales process.<\/p>\n
It said this is the biggest pipeline in over four years, since May 2021, \u201cwhen the pandemic boom was in full swing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report said: \u201cStability in mortgage rates has brought more sellers into the market, many of whom are also buyers, alongside strong demand from first-time buyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The website used its own data to make the sales pipeline estimate for the UK market.<\/p>\n
Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla, said: \u201cThe housing market is experiencing a slowdown in activity but there are still serious sellers looking to buy homes and secure their next home purchase.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuying a home is a lengthy process and there are a record number of homes for sale which means lots of buyers looking for their next home. The slowdown is modest and less severe than the impact of the 2022 mini-budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s early stage buyers adopting a cautious approach to new purchases ahead of the Budget with greater caution for those buying higher value homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe housing market remains on track for the most housing sales since 2022 and house prices are set to end the year 1% to 1.5% higher than the start of 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guy Gittins, chief executive at estate agent Foxtons, said: \u201cWhile the market has clearly slowed in recent weeks, much of this reflects a natural pause as buyers and sellers understandably take stock ahead of the November Budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce there is greater clarity around taxation and economic policy, we expect confidence to return quickly \u2013 particularly in London, where underlying demand remains strong and well-funded buyers are still active. The current slowdown should therefore be viewed as a temporary pause rather than a fundamental shift in market dynamics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoopla\u2019s home sales data\u00a0covered the four weeks to October 19 2025, compared with the same period in 2024. Its house price data went up to the end of September 2025.<\/p>\n
The index measures the change in house prices when sales are agreed, rather than asking prices.<\/p>\n
Here are annual house price increases or decreases across the UK in September, according to Zoopla:<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland, 7.6%<\/p>\n
North West, 3.0%<\/p>\n
Scotland, 2.7%<\/p>\n
North East, 2.3%<\/p>\n
Wales, 2.2%<\/p>\n
West Midlands, 2.1%<\/p>\n
Yorkshire and the Humber, 1.9%<\/p>\n
East Midlands, 1.2%<\/p>\n
Eastern England, 0.8%<\/p>\n
London, 0.1%<\/p>\n
South East, 0.0%<\/p>\n
South West, minus 0.1%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The usual housing market slowdown seen in the run-up to Christmas has started early, according to a property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,58366,6791,1144,171869,97639,712,16,15,1764,13318],"class_list":{"0":"post-530347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-house-price","13":"tag-housing-market","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-sales-pipeline","16":"tag-sales-process","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales","21":"tag-zoopla"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115443931763771384","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}