Four in Five Leasehold Flats Are Still Unsold After Six Months: What's Going On?

"It is not easy out there if you are trying to sell a flat." That was Richard Donnell, Zoopla's executive director of research, speaking on Radio 4's Today programme in August 2026. His warning followed a striking figure: around four in five flats put up for sale had still not found a buyer after about six months.

The figure is real, but it is easy to misunderstand. This article looks at what Zoopla actually measured, why flats are taking longer to sell than houses, and what sellers can do about it. Price is part of the story, but it is far from the whole explanation.

What Zoopla Found

The Guardian asked Zoopla to look at leasehold flats listed for sale in England during 2025 and see how many had found a buyer within six months. The result was stark: 80.5 percent were still unsold. London performed worst, with around 87 percent unsold, followed by the South East at 85 percent and the East of England at 84 percent.

That does not mean the whole housing market is moving at the same pace. Flats are clearly underperforming other property types, and prices show the same pattern. Zoopla's August 2026 index put the average UK flat at £191,800, down 1.6 percent over the year, while average property prices overall were up 0.9 percent.

The gap is particularly clear in London. HM Land Registry figures for June 2026 show that the average price of a London flat or maisonette was down 4.7 percent year on year, compared with a 2.5 percent fall across the London market as a whole.

This is part of a longer trend. Zoopla says the gap between house and flat prices is now the widest it has been for 30 years. We covered that in June when the price gap hit a record, and earlier in why flat prices are falling behind houses.

Reading the Number Carefully

Before concluding that flats simply cannot be sold, the 80.5 percent figure needs some perspective.

First, it measures flats listed for sale, not the chances of your particular flat selling. The group includes properties that were overpriced from the start, as well as flats with short leases, high service charges, unresolved cladding problems or other issues that make them harder to sell. Zoopla's published analysis also does not make clear how properties that were withdrawn and later relisted were treated. So the headline figure tells us that the market is difficult, but not that a well-priced flat in a straightforward building has an 80 percent chance of failing to sell.

And one in five flats did find a buyer within six months. Zoopla's own advice points to some of the differences: realistic pricing, understanding what local buyers can afford and having information such as the lease length and service charge history ready from the outset all help.

The falls are uneven too. London flats were down 4.7 percent in the year to June 2026, but the wider London data shows a sharp divide between different parts of the capital, with the overall fall driven mainly by Inner London. Some boroughs were still recording price growth while some of the most expensive central boroughs saw steep falls. A seller in outer east London can therefore be facing a very different market from one in Westminster or Kensington.

Zoopla itself is not wholly gloomy. Donnell argues that flats now offer growing value compared with houses and that prices are unlikely to fall significantly, although buyers are likely to remain cautious. That matters. As flats become cheaper relative to houses, they become more attractive to buyers who have been priced out of larger properties. The question is how quickly that translates into stronger demand.

Why Flats Are Stuck When Houses Are Not

Donnell pointed to a long list of reasons for the slowdown: rising service charges, ground rent, uncertainty over leasehold reform, building safety, cautious lenders and the wider complexity of owning a leasehold property. Four stand out.

Running costs have become harder to ignore. The average service charge in England and Wales reached £2,405 a year in 2025, according to Hamptons, while in London it was higher still at £2,801. More importantly, 37 percent of flats had service charges above 1 percent of their value, a level at which some lenders apply additional restrictions. Buyers are therefore looking beyond the asking price to the ongoing cost of owning the flat, and in some cases those costs can affect how much they are able to borrow. Our September 2025 piece on why service charges keep rising explains where the money goes.

Short leases are caught up in reform uncertainty. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is intended to make lease extensions cheaper and abolish marriage value, but those changes are not yet in force. The government is still consulting on the valuation rates, with consultations closing on 23 September 2026, and the reforms are also the subject of an appeal brought by freeholders. Until the new system takes effect, buyers and sellers have to work with the law as it stands. That can make flats with shorter leases harder to price, particularly as they approach the current 80-year marriage value threshold. We looked at the seller's options in whether to wait for reform and our free lease length and extension cost tool.

Building safety can still complicate a sale. Progress has been made since the worst years of the cladding crisis, and several major lenders will now lend on affected buildings where remediation is funded or the leaseholder is protected from the cost. But an unresolved building safety position can still mean extra paperwork, lender checks and delays, and some buyers will simply choose a less complicated property. Our 2020 report on owners stuck in unsafe flats shows how severe the problem became.

The selling process itself loses buyers. Leasehold sales involve more paperwork, more enquiries and more reliance on freeholders and managing agents. Connells data published in May 2026 put the average leasehold sale at 155 days from offer to exchange, 58 days longer than a freehold sale. Leasehold transactions were also more likely to collapse: 43 percent of agreed leasehold sales fell through in 2025, compared with 36 percent of freehold sales. The longer a transaction runs, the more time there is for a problem to emerge or for a buyer to change their mind. We looked at the extra work involved in our piece on the paperwork burden.

Is It Really About Price?

Partly. Rightmove's August figures show a market in which sellers are having to compete harder for buyers. Average asking prices fell 2 percent in a month, the biggest August drop since 2018, while London asking prices were down 3.1 percent on a year earlier. Rightmove also revised its 2026 forecast from a 2 percent rise to somewhere between no change and a 2 percent fall. Sprift's latest figures tell a similar story: 39.2 percent of homes currently for sale have already had their asking price reduced.

For flats, there is another problem. The typical buyer is often a first-time buyer, while the seller may be an investor who is under less pressure to move. As Donnell put it, the two can "want two different prices". In London, Zoopla found investor-owned flats being marketed at around £450,000, while the typical first-time buyer budget was closer to £425,000. If seller expectations and buyer budgets do not meet, the flat simply sits on the market.

But cutting the price does not solve every problem. A 5 percent reduction will not help if the buyer's lender will not accept the building, the lease is too short or the ground rent clause causes a mortgage problem. Repeated reductions can also work against a seller, as buyers can see the price history and may start wondering why the flat has not sold.

The better approach is to deal with price and the leasehold issues together. Price the flat against recent comparable sales in the same building and immediate area, rather than relying on broad borough averages. At the same time, have the lease length, service charge history, major works information and other important leasehold details ready for buyers as early as possible. Rightmove says nearly three-quarters of homes sold so far this year found a buyer without first needing a price reduction, which is another reason to get the price and the information right from the start.

What Sellers Should Do, and What They Should Not

The Zoopla figures point to a fairly simple lesson: in a difficult market, sellers need to get the price, the paperwork and the sales strategy right from the start.

Do:

• Price against genuinely comparable flats. Look at recent sales in your own building, street and immediate area, particularly flats of a similar size and condition. Borough averages can provide useful context, but they will not tell you what buyers are prepared to pay for your flat.
• Check the lease length before you list. The LEASE lease extension calculator can look up how long is left on your lease using HM Land Registry data and give you an indicative estimate of what an extension could cost. If the lease is approaching 80 years, decide early whether to extend before selling, sell with the shorter lease reflected in the price, or consider buyers who are less reliant on mortgage finance.
• Put important information on the table early. Gather the lease, recent service charge accounts and demands, ground rent information, any Section 20 notices and relevant building safety paperwork before you go to market. With leasehold property, you may not know everything at this stage, and some information will only emerge later through the management pack and conveyancing process. But anything important that you already know should be disclosed from the start.
• Set a date to review the sale. Agree with your agent that if the flat has generated viewings but no serious offers after a set period, you will review the feedback. The problem may be the price, the presentation, the marketing or something about the lease or building that buyers are struggling with.
• Match the method of sale to your priorities. If achieving the highest possible price matters most and you have time, an estate agency sale may offer the best opportunity. If you have a firm deadline, auction or a direct sale can provide a faster and more predictable route.

Do not:

• Do not assume changing agents will solve the problem. Re-listing with another agent at the same price will not fix an asking price that buyers have already rejected. The property's previous marketing history may also remain visible online.
• Do not chase the market down with repeated small reductions. If the evidence shows the asking price is too high, a meaningful adjustment is usually clearer than a succession of small cuts that leave the flat sitting on the market for months.
• Do not wait for leasehold reform to rescue a short lease. The new valuation system is not yet in force, while the existing 80-year marriage value rule still applies. Plan around the law that exists today rather than a future change whose timing and final effect are not yet settled.
• Do not assume refurbishment will solve a leasehold problem. A new kitchen or bathroom may improve presentation, but it will not reduce the service charge, lengthen the lease or resolve a building safety problem. Before spending heavily, be realistic about what is actually holding buyers back.
• Do not hide bad news. Planned major works, disputes, building safety concerns and other significant issues are likely to emerge during conveyancing anyway. A buyer who discovers them several weeks into the sale may renegotiate or withdraw. Dealing with them openly from the start gives the buyer a chance to take them into account before making an offer.

Our View

Four in five is a striking figure, and it deserves attention. But it is a figure about listings, not about every flat. Many of the properties in Zoopla's unsold column will have been priced too high, affected by leasehold problems or held back by issues with the building. The sellers most likely to succeed are the ones who identify those problems early and either fix them or reflect them honestly in the price.

For some sellers, that may point towards a direct sale. A cash buyer removes the mortgage lender from the process, which can make a big difference where a short lease, building safety issue or other leasehold problem makes conventional lending difficult. The trade-off is price: a cash offer will usually be lower than the best price you might achieve from a mortgaged buyer. We explain that openly on our how it works page.

But if a flat has already been sitting on the market for six months, the comparison is not always between a cash offer and the perfect open-market sale. It may be between selling now and facing several more months of service charges, council tax, uncertainty and the risk that the market moves against you.