Fewer buyers, more sellers: what the September RICS survey means for your move

What happened

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) asks estate agents and surveyors across the country each month what they are seeing. Its survey for September, published on 8 October, pointed two ways at once:

• Fewer new buyers. The balance of agents reporting more new buyer enquiries, rather than fewer, fell to -22% from -18% in August, the first weakening since March. Agreed sales and expectations for the next three months softened too.
• More homes coming to market. New instructions to sell turned positive for the first time since mid-2025.

RICS linked the slowdown to higher interest rate expectations. With fixed mortgage rates around 6%, buyers’ budgets are tighter and many are more cautious.

These are survey balances, not prices, and every local market moves differently. But the direction matters: in many areas, more sellers are now competing for fewer buyers.

What it means if you are selling

• Your home is being compared with more alternatives. When more homes come to market at the same time as buyer numbers dip, buyers have more choice and less urgency.
• The launch price matters more than ever. A price grounded in what comparable homes nearby have actually sold for attracts early interest. A hopeful price is easier to ignore when there is plenty else to view. You can see what homes like yours have sold for in your area with our house price check.
• The first few weeks are the ones that count. A home is never more interesting to buyers than when it first appears. Choosing the agent and agreeing the price before launch is where much of the outcome is decided, as we explain in choosing an estate agent.
• Look after a proceedable buyer. In a quieter market, a buyer with finance in place and a short or no chain is worth more than a slightly higher offer with more risk attached.

What it means if you are buying

• You may have more choice and more room to negotiate, particularly on homes that have been on the market for a while.
• But your own finance needs to hold. The same higher rates cooling demand are squeezing budgets, and a down-valuation or an expiring mortgage offer can still undo a good deal.

Jon’s view

National surveys describe the mood; your street decides the price. What matters for any one move is the local evidence, the condition and position of the home, and how it is launched. In a market with more sellers than buyers, getting those right at the start is worth far more than waiting to see what the next survey says.