In 2018, just under 285,000 properties across Great Britain were purchased with cash alone, comprising 29% of all property sales.
This is the lowest proportion of cash sales recorded since this record began. Between 2012 and 2017, more than 30% of transactions were cash sales.
The proportion of cash sales fell in each region of the country. With landlords facing increased costs and challenges, it seems that some have chosen to invest their cash elsewhere. It is no coincidence that as cash sales have dropped, so the proportion of sales to first-time buyers has increased.
Most popular regions for cash sales continue to be the South West and Wales, where more than 1 in 3 properties sold in 2018 were bought with cash alone.
