More than one in three house sales fall through because of problems in securing mortgages, research from Nottingham Building Society has revealed.
The study found 34 per cent who have tried to buy or sell in the past five years have watched their deal fall through because of mortgage issues.
Topping the reasons for deals failing is finance, while the second (32 per cent) said deals had fallen through because of buyers changing their mind at the last minute.
Nottingham Building Society also found buyers are more likely to have mortgage issues than sellers.
According to the study, house sellers are twice as likely to see transactions fail than house buyers.
HMRC data showed a total of 104,200 residential property transactions were completed in July as the market recovered from a slump in April, which saw just 73,430 deals, following the introduction of new buy-to-let stamp duty rules.
Up to 1.328 million house transactions were completed in the year to 5 April compared with 1.2 million in the previous year.
Su Snaith, head of estate agency at The Nottingham, said: “It is worrying that the successful outcome of many housing transactions relies so heavily on people getting the right mortgage for them very early on.
“There is a limit to what you can do to stop people changing their minds but finance should not be an issue.”
