Homeowners are moving less frequently due to high costs and other obstacles, new analysis by Connells suggests.

The percentage of sellers in England & Wales who bought their home within the prior five years has halved over the past two decades from 29% in 2006 to 14% in 2026.

Just 5% of sellers this year in England & Wales have owned their home for less than three years, the lowest share on record and down from 15% in 2006.

High transaction costs are partly to blame, Connells argues, as the typical mover in England will spend £5,950 on stamp duty this year or £23,000 if they are buying in London.

On top of this, movers will have to pay for conveyancing, mortgage fees and removals.

Weaker house price growth is creating another barrier, according to Connells, with a fifth of sellers who had owned for five years or less selling at a loss in 2026.

In London, just 9% of 2026 sellers had bought within the last five years, while an estimated 21% of homes are now worth less than their owner paid.

Complications around selling leasehold properties, escalating ground rents, cladding and fire safety issues have created further obstacles to moving, particularly for flat owners.

The increase in the average timescale from a sale being agreed to exchange of contracts, has created another deterrent for movers.

Connells research director Aneisha Beveridge says: “Homeowners are increasingly finding that moving no longer pays.

“High stamp duty costs, higher mortgage rates and weaker price growth have created a cocktail of reasons why many households are staying put for longer than they otherwise would.

“The result is that homeowners are less likely to make small, incremental steps up or down the housing ladder; when they do move, it increasingly needs to be a bigger, longer-term decision.

“This matters because a healthy housing market depends on people being able to move when their lives change.

“Whether it is having children, changing jobs or downsizing later in life, households need the flexibility to adapt their housing to their circumstances.

“Instead, we are seeing growing financial barriers make those moves harder to justify.

“The fall in turnover is happening across the country.

“Homeowners are moving less often than they were 20 years ago in every region, with the biggest drop-offs typically in London and the South, where transaction costs bite hardest.

“Lower churn doesn’t just weigh on housing transactions, it reduces the efficiency with which the existing housing stock is used and can act as a drag on wider economic growth and productivity.

“Our analysis suggests that if homeowners were moving as frequently as they were in 2006, we would see around 439,000 additional housing transactions each year.”