Almost half of UK homebuyers say ‘Never again’

Research from WiggyWam, the all in one property platform, has revealed that 45% of UK homebuyers found the experience so frustrating that they’ve been put off the idea of ever doing it again.

24% of those homebuyers say that, while the experience has put them off the idea of moving again, they are likely to have to do so at some point in the future due to personal and lifestyle circumstances. 21%, however, say they will never move again.

With an average of 1 million property transactions a year, 45% accounts for 450,000 potential homebuyers who have been put off re-entering the market again, and 210,000 who refuse outright to engage any further with the open market.

This is despite 47% of homebuyers saying that the buying and moving experience was just as they had expected it to be, suggesting that the housing market has a less-than-great reputation among the general public.

20% of UK homebuyers say the experience of buying and moving was better than they were expecting, while 33% say it was explicitly worse.

When asked what aspects of the experience were most frustrating and therefore most likely to put them off moving again, 33% cite the time it took to complete the move, 22% say it was dealing with conveyancers and solicitors, and 10% say being unable to find the right home was the most frustrating part.

Only 8% cite ‘additional costs’ as the most off-putting aspect, a category which includes the much-discussed Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT). Meanwhile, just 7% say their estate agent was the most frustrating part of the process.

WiggyWam CEO, Silas J. Lees MRICS, says:

 “Anyone involved in the house-moving process knows it’s a highly stressful event in a person’s life. I think the industry can grow immune to the real-life impact this has. When the entire process is drawn out, convoluted and rife with delay, as so much of it historically is, people’s lives are negatively affected. 

“We should no longer accept a sales process that is akin to putting clients through a mangle and then charging them for the privilege. This is why we lose 1-in-5 potential buyers every year.

“And this goes hand-in-glove with the clear fact that movers care little for the taxes, duties, and fees attached to the moving process; something which we in the industry spend so much time fretting over. Buyers and sellers are willing to pay for premium service, to remove stress and tribulation.

“Another very real cost of elongated timelines that we’re seeing in this period of extraordinary demand is the negative impact delays have on estate agents and their reputation. They do everything they can to keep a deal together, only for things outside of their control to cause unnecessary delays! Frankly, this isn’t fair. Agents deserve more.

“We feel our ‘Conveyancing Concierge’ service is perfectly suited to address these headaches in the marketplace; slashing  transaction times in half for the benefit of all by bringing conveyancing out of the darkness, into the light.”

Survey of 1,086 recent UK homebuyers carried out by Find Out Now (January 30th 2021).