Data story

How many UK homes are bought with cash?

The share of home sales with no mortgage, region by region, from official UK House Price Index sales counts.

Indicative only. Built from public data that can be out of date, incomplete or matched to the wrong address; we do not guarantee accuracy or completeness. Check the source and take professional advice before relying on it. How accurate is this?

Key finding

The short answer

About one in four homes bought in England between October 2024 and September 2025 was bought without a mortgage: 25.7% of 796,493 sales. Scotland (31.6%) and South West (31.1%) were highest, London (19.4%) lowest. This is a proxy for cash, explained below.

Data last updated 28 October 2026.

Share of home sales with no mortgage recorded, 12 months October 2024 to September 2025.

England
25.7%
796,493 sales
Scotland
31.6%
Highest share
London
19.4%
Lowest share
Gap
12.2 pts
Highest minus lowest

The figures

See it in charts and tables

By region

Share of sales with no mortgage

Scotland was highest at 31.6% and London lowest at 19.4%, a gap of 12.2 points; England as a whole was 25.7%.

England (all)25.7%

Scotland31.6%

South West31.1%

North East29.8%

Wales27.9%

Yorkshire and The Humber27.1%

North West26.3%

South East25.4%

East of England25.0%

East Midlands25.0%

West Midlands24.1%

London19.4%

HM Land Registry UK HPI, 12 months October 2024 to September 2025

The figures behind the chart

Area	No mortgage	Sales counted	No-mortgage sales (about)
England	25.7%	796,493	204,700
Scotland	31.6%	102,276	32,300
South West	31.1%	90,841	28,300
North East	29.8%	40,708	12,100
Wales	27.9%	42,326	11,800
Yorkshire and The Humber	27.1%	79,665	21,600
North West	26.3%	107,123	28,200
South East	25.4%	137,500	34,900
East of England	25.0%	96,413	24,100
East Midlands	25.0%	75,356	18,800
West Midlands	24.1%	77,456	18,700
London	19.4%	91,437	17,700

Not published in this file: United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The no-mortgage count is share times sales, rounded.

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What it shows

What the figures say

In England, 25.7% of 796,493 sales between October 2024 and September 2025 had no mortgage, about 205,000 homes.
The highest shares were Scotland (31.6%), South West (31.1%), North East (29.8%). The lowest was London at 19.4%, 12.2 points below Scotland.
It is not a straight line from price to cash. London, the most expensive region, has the lowest share. The North East, the cheapest (£165,640 on average in August 2026), has 29.8%. The South West (£304,139) is second highest at 31.1%, while the South East (£379,953) sits near the English average at 25.4%.
Even in the highest area, most buyers still used a mortgage: at least 68.4% of sales in every area shown had one. London's share (the lowest) means about four in five London sales had a mortgage.
The gaps are not small-sample noise: every area counts at least 40,708 sales (North East). What the data cannot say is why. It holds no buyer details.

Method and sources

What "cash" means here

How it is worked out

Definition. The UK House Price Index counts each month's sales and, separately, its "cash sales": sales with no mortgage registered against the property. We divide cash sales by all sales over October 2024 to September 2025.
It is a proxy. "No mortgage" is not proof of cash in the bank. A buyer who borrows against another home, or whose loan is not registered on the purchased property, counts as cash. A buyer who pays cash and remortgages later may be counted either way.
Source and period. HM Land Registry UK House Price Index, file UK-HPI-full-file-2026-08.csv, SalesVolume and CashSalesVolume columns, built by scripts/build-region-prices.mjs. The period stops nine months before the newest month with sales counts, because cash sales reach the register later than mortgaged ones and recent months look too low (England read 11.7% for May 2026 against a steady 25% a year earlier).
Areas. English regions, Wales and Scotland. England is all English regions together.

What it does not show

Northern Ireland and a UK total are not shown: the file has no cash sales count for them.
Scotland's figure comes from Registers of Scotland data inside the same file and may be measured differently, so compare it with care.
It counts sales, not prices. It says nothing about whether cash buyers pay more or less.
It is a region average. Streets, towns and property types will differ a lot from their region.
It covers sales that reached the register in the window, not offers made or sales that fell through.

UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry, ONS, Registers of Scotland, LPS Northern Ireland), file UK-HPI-full-file-2026-08.csv, SalesVolume and CashSalesVolume columns, 12 months October 2024 to September 2025.
Built by scripts/build-region-prices.mjs into data/region-prices.json. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Use this data

How to cite this page

You are welcome to quote the figures. Please link to this page and keep the source line with them.

Attribution text: Source: Check Labs Ltd (Your Property Check), "How many UK homes are bought with cash?", 28 October 2026. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right. UK House Price Index licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Suggested citation: Check Labs Ltd (2026). How many UK homes are bought with cash? Your Property Check. Available at: https://yourpropertycheck.co.uk/data/cash-buyers-by-region (data updated 28 October 2026).
Page address: https://yourpropertycheck.co.uk/data/cash-buyers-by-region
Licence and update: Open Government Licence v3.0 (terms). Data last updated 28 October 2026.

Our take

What we make of it

A quarter of English buyers needing no mortgage is common, but it is not a sign that cash offers are generous.

If you are selling, a buyer without a mortgage can move faster because no lender has to value the home, but cash offers are often below open-market value. Compare any offer with what selling the normal way would cost you.

What selling costs

If you are buying with a mortgage, you are the majority in every area on this page, even where cash is most common.

A high cash share is a reason to expect competition for the same home, not a reason to pay more than comparable sales support.

See what a cash buyer might offer, with no obligation.

Get Cash Offer

Our opinion, drawn from the figures on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.

Questions, answered

Common questions

What counts as a cash sale here?

A sale with no mortgage recorded. The UK House Price Index counts sales and "cash sales", the ones where no mortgage was registered against the property. That is a proxy: a buyer who borrows against another property, or takes a loan that is not registered on the purchased home, would show up as cash.

Why does the period end in September 2025?

Cash purchases reach the register later than mortgaged ones, so recent months look less cash-heavy than they will turn out to be. For England, May 2026 read 11.7% cash when we checked, against a steady 25% a year earlier. We therefore stop nine months before the newest month that has sales counts, so the 12 months shown are settled.

Why is London the lowest?

The figures show that London has the lowest cash share (19.4%) but not why. The data has no buyer details, so we cannot say whether it is price, investors, first-time buyers or something else. We would be guessing.

Where are Northern Ireland and the UK total?

The file we use has no cash sales count for United Kingdom or Northern Ireland, so we show nothing for them rather than a guess. Scotland's figure comes from Registers of Scotland data inside the same file and may be measured differently from England and Wales, so compare it with some care.

Does a high cash share mean cash buyers pay less?

No. This page counts sales, not prices or discounts. If you are weighing a cash offer against an open-market sale, the costs of selling page shows what each route typically costs.

Keep going

Sellers

What it costs to sell a house