The day before exchanging contracts, the buyers of Sarah's house dropped their agreed offer by fifteen thousand pounds. "It was awful, your heart just drops to your stomach," said Sarah, not her real name. She had fallen victim to gazundering, a rare but growing problem in the property market of England and Wales, according to the Conveyancing Association.
“It was awful, your heart just drops to your stomach.” — Sarah, gazundered the day before exchange
Gazundering occurs when a buyer lowers their agreed offer just before contracts are exchanged, pressuring the seller to accept a lower price or risk losing the sale and collapsing the property chain. It is possible because, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, an offer is not legally binding until parties exchange contracts; once accepted, it takes an average of one hundred and twenty days to complete, and one in three sales falls through before exchange.
For Sarah, her husband and two children, the move had been proceeding smoothly. They were selling a three-bedroom terrace they had renovated and buying her parents' four-bedroom detached house in the countryside. Then, the day before contracts, her "befuddled" estate agent called with bad news: the buyers had done more research and would now offer fifteen thousand pounds less.
Sarah calculated the financial consequences of losing the sale and the costs of refusing alike. "We had already paid one set of legal fees but would have had to pay again if we needed a new buyer. We'd also paid the removal fees already and would have to pay again if we cancelled the moving date," she said. Accepting meant being out of pocket; refusing meant fresh expense and delay.
The Conveyancing Association is calling for government reforms aimed at tackling gazundering and related issues to be introduced "without delay" rather than in 2029 as planned. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government estimates that failed sales cost sellers four hundred million pounds and the wider economy one point five billion pounds each year.
Planned reforms would cut the time to completion by four weeks and save the average first-time buyer six hundred and fifty pounds, the government says. Until then, sellers are advised to keep chains short, agree deadlines, and consider asking buyers for a deposit or commitment that discourages last-minute renegotiation, the only real defence against a tactic that thrives on asymmetry of risk.
Until the reforms arrive, the only binding thing about an English house sale remains the ink on exchange day — everything before it is negotiation.
Gazundering is a symptom, not a disease. The disease is a 120-day limbo between acceptance and exchange — the longest in the developed world — and every year the government delays its 2029 reforms transfers roughly £400m from sellers to opportunistic buyers. Jurisdictions that made offers binding early (Scotland, most of Europe) do not have this problem, which tells you the fix is legislative will, not technology.
