Fresh figures have shown that failed house moves are costing buyers and sellers £400m a year.
One in four sales in England and Wales fall through, often after both parties have spent money on solicitor fees, surveys and other costs.
The chain management platform found this compared to 192,538 in 2024, 180,429 in 2023, 202,372 in 2022 and 220,644 in 2021. For all years, the time-period compared was January to August.
| Year | Number of fall-throughs | Fall-through rate |
| 2025 | 214,052 | 24.3% |
| 2024 | 192,538 | 23.6% |
| 2023 | 180,439 | 26.0% |
| 2022 | 220,372 | 22.2% |
| 2021 | 220,644 | 22.7% |
Source: ViewMyChain
Paul Halliwell, executive director at View My Chain, said: “Conveyancers and agents often blame missing searches, mortgage delays, and slow replies for stalled transactions, but these are only symptoms. 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. Invisible chains are no longer an unsolvable problem because the technology and integrations already exist to support transparency.”
According to ViewMyChain, achieving faster and more reliable completions requires transaction data to be visible within CRMs and case management systems through API integration – a service that it provides – supported by real-time interoperable feeds, and scaled nationally to cover every link.
In a pilot with a 1,000 branch national agency, ViewMyChain says 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.”
According to ViewMyChain, achieving faster and more reliable completions requires transaction data to be visible within CRMs and case management systems through API integration, supported by real-time interoperable feeds, and scaled nationally to cover every link. Without this, outdated records, isolated processes, and fragmented systems will continue to undermine progress.
The company is calling on platforms to embed visibility into workflows and build chain intelligence into core systems.
Halliwell added: “Forward-thinking practices must start pushing their CRM providers for chain visibility features, participating in pilot programmes, or demanding integration capabilities that support transparency.
“The opportunity is significant. Cutting completion times will save thousands of wasted professional hours, reduce fall-throughs, and restore consumer confidence.”
