'Hundreds of thousands' of potential housing deals killed by mortgage problems

Failure to secure a mortgage in time causes more than a third of all housing transactions to fail, according to new research, killing "hundreds of thousands" of potential deals.

Of those buying or selling a home in the past five years, 34% said problems securing finance had scuppered deals.

Nottingham Building Society commissioned market research firm Consumer Intelligence to carry out the poll of more than 1,000 adults.

"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," said Su Snaith, head of estate agency at The Nottingham.

"Selling or buying a house does not have to be stressful but with hundreds of thousands of transactions failing every year it is clear that people need expert support and advice throughout the process. There is a limit to what you can do to stop people changing their minds but finance should not be an issue."

There were 1,328,510 residential property transactions across the UK in the 2015-16 financial year, up 10.5%, according to HMRC data. Ultra-low interest rates and schemes to help first-time buyers, such as Help to Buy and shared ownership, have supported the housing market.