A STAGGERING 28 per cent of house sales fell through before completion in England and Wales, in the third quarter of this year.

Market uncertainty over Brexit has been blamed for shaking the confidence of would-be buyers, leading to many deals collapsing.

Property experts fear that the number of failed property deals will only increase, as Britain negotiates its exit from the EU over the coming year.

They say buyers getting last-minute cold feet and retreating could frustrate the UK market for some time, if the problem is not addressed.

A breakdown of the figures shows that 21 per cent of “fall throughs” were due the buyer trying to renegotiate the price at the last minute, and another 21 per cent due to the lender changing their mind and refusing to supply money.

Industry experts found that in 16 per cent of cases, the buyer changed their mind and did not want to continue with the sale, while 11 per cent were due to the buyer pulling out because of survey issues.

The overall figure is a sharp rise from 26 per cent of deals falling through in the previous quarter, the study from national home buyer Quick Move Now found.

The nature of the reasons behind the house-sale failures would indicate a complete lack of confidence from buyers, according to Danny Luke, Quick Move Now’s managing director.

He said that the UK property market is still “full of uncertainty and instability” and buyers are likely to become even more apprehensive in the future.

He added: “2016 as a whole was a turbulent year for the UK property market, with external factors like the EU referendum, the triggering of Article 50 all playing their part on the fall-through rate.

“Nearly every day, the media is reporting a property-price slowdown across the UK.

“It is clear the UK property market is still full of uncertainty and instability.

“And with many property experts predicting this downward shift to continue as we go into 2018, I would expect buyers to become even more apprehensive in the short term.”