Traditional Family Home Sales Fall In 40 Of The UK's 50 Largest Cities

Liverpool and Leicester sell 30% fewer traditional family homes than just a decade ago, according to an October 2026 real estate report. While one-family houses make up two-thirds of all UK real estate, a new study released by Trade Door Handles https://tradedoorhandles.co.uk/ identified British cities where traditional homes no longer sell.

• Family homes are now sold 30.8% less often in Liverpool than in 2015, making it the sharpest sales fall in the country.
• The declining interest in traditional housing is recorded in 40 out of 50 largest UK cities, with only a few breaking the trend.
• Manchester homeowners are 25% less likely to sell their family home, as real estate prices in the city rose by 60+% in the last decade.

The report looked at traditional family home sales in the 50 largest UK cities to identify the urban areas where homebuyers are losing interest in traditional housing. For a home to count as a traditional family unit, it had to be a detached or semi-detached house, not a flat or bungalow, with a floor area of 80-110 m2 and 4-5 habitable rooms. The study compared Land Registry data for 2 periods: 2015-2019 and 2023-2025, calculating the change in overall sales.

Here is how the top 10 UK cities with the lowest traditional house sales compare:

| City | Change in traditional family homes sold, 2015-2019 vs 2023-2025 (%) | Traditional family homes sold in 2015 | Traditional family homes sold in 2025 | Houses sold in 2015 (detached, semi-detached and terraced) | Houses sold in 2025 (detached, semi-detached and terraced) | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Liverpool | -30.8% | 640 | 565 | 4507 | 3795 | | Leicester | -30.6% | 566 | 432 | 3056 | 2064 | | Portsmouth | -27.1% | 203 | 155 | 2509 | 1865 | | Southampton | -25.4% | 504 | 402 | 2446 | 1859 | | Manchester | -25.1% | 726 | 590 | 4472 | 3015 | | Bath and North East Somerset | -23.8% | 361 | 320 | 2583 | 2218 | | Lincoln | -23.2% | 198 | 173 | 1548 | 1142 | | Wolverhampton | -22.9% | 664 | 590 | 2485 | 2063 | | Plymouth | -21.9% | 490 | 460 | 3507 | 3144 | | Nottingham | -21.8% | 630 | 544 | 3198 | 2514 |

You can access the full report findings by following this link https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTRWZeYCl-lcAh9gR1UW-TsWSYwNyRynMBal6sq01AmyV-MjkFUt-ho2c8U-kpgV_yTdjryKZBvtTku/pubhtml.

1. Liverpool

• Change in traditional family homes sold: -30.8%
• Traditional family homes sold in 2015: 640
• Traditional family homes sold in 2025: 565

In Liverpool, homebuyers are now least interested in traditional family housing, with sales dropping 30.8% in the last decade. Demand was the strongest in 2017, with 826 traditional houses sold, but in 2025, sales amounted to only 565, over 250 fewer. At the same time, when adjusted for inflation, real estate prices in Liverpool didn't change much over the decade, and didn't influence the falling demand.

2. Leicester

Leicester follows closely, with almost the same trend as in Liverpool, as traditional home sales decreased by 30.6%, less than a half-percent difference. In 2015, over 560 family houses of this kind were sold in the city, but last year the numbers didn't reach even 450. About a fifth of Leicester housing inventory sits in a £200K-£250K range, making it more affordable than the national average.

3. Portsmouth

Portsmouth recorded the third-largest loss of interest in family homes, as sales fell by 27.1%. The local housing market is already 3 times smaller than in Liverpool, and during its peak in 2015, 203 traditional houses were sold. A decade later, the sales amounted to 155, and even regular real estate deals dropped by 1,000, going from 3K to 2,064.

4. Southampton

Southampton takes fourth spot, with a 25.4% drop in traditional housing sales. 2015 was the best year for home sellers in the decade, and since then, the number of deals has declined from 504 to 402, a whole 100 fewer. Overall, the real estate market cooled in Southampton, too, with over 20% fewer sales of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses.

5. Manchester

In fifth place is Manchester, where family houses are 25.1% less popular now than in 2015. Similar to Liverpool, 2017 was the most successful year, with 772 traditional homes sold, but the numbers have been dropping ever since. In 2025, Manchester home sellers got a deal on just 590 such homes, which is still a smaller decline rate than on real estate overall, which dropped by over 30%.

A home expert from Trade Door Handles commented on the study:

"First-time buyers are now entering the property market at an average age of 34, because deposit requirements and prices have made earlier purchase almost impossible. But the more structural problem is on the supply side. Older homeowners sitting in large family homes account for a significant share of total housing stock, and they're not moving because downsizing often means paying more in stamp duty than they'd save on running costs. The result is a market where around 36% of homeowners in England are aged 65 and above, while under-35s represent just 15%."

When using the data, please credit: https://tradedoorhandles.co.uk/