12/06/2026
UK Property Market Week 22 2026: The Bounce Back Came, But Buyers Still Hold the Cards
Week 22 delivered the expected post Bank Holiday bounce.
25,637 UK homes sold STC this week, up from 22,100 the previous week. That is exactly what you would expect after the late May Bank Holiday dip. Strip out the noise, and the market is still functioning.
Not flying. Not collapsing. Functioning. The Week 22 average over the last 10 years is 23,500 sales agreed, so this week came in comfortably above that. Year to date, sales agreed are still 1.7% ahead of 2024, which matters, because despite all the noise, homes are still selling.
The supply side remains the bigger story. 38,865 new listings came to market this week, up from 31,300 last week, although last week was Bank Holiday affected. That is also well above the 10 year Week 22 average of 30,900 and above the 2025 weekly average of 30,600.
Year to date, listings are now 0.5% higher than 2025, 5.9% above 2024 and 14.5% above the 2017 to 2019 average. That means buyers have choice. Lots of it.
And when buyers have choice, they do not chase. They compare. They hesitate. They negotiate. They swipe left on anything that looks even slightly ambitious. House prices on sales agreed are still up 1.9% year on year, at ยฃ349.64 per sq ft, and 13.2% higher than May 2021. So, this is not a crash story. It is a pricing discipline story.
In May, only 14.6% of estate agentsโ stock went Sold STC, the same as April, and only 54.5% of homes leaving agentsโ books actually exchanged, completed and moved. The other 45.5% were withdrawn unsold.
That is the market in one sentence. Good homes, priced properly are still selling. Over ambitious homes are not struggling because the market is broken. They are struggling because buyers now have enough choice to ignore them.
