UK Property Marketing Statistics 2026: Verified Figures, and Six You Should Stop Quoting

Most property marketing statistics in circulation are American, undated, or traceable to no original study at all. This page collects the figures we could verify against a primary source, with that source named next to each one, and separates them from the widely repeated numbers that do not survive checking. Everything below is UK data unless stated otherwise. It is free to cite, and we update it annually.

Why are most property marketing statistics unreliable?

Search for property video statistics and you will find the same handful of numbers on dozens of pages. Follow the citations and something odd happens: each page cites another marketing blog, which cites another, and the trail either loops or stops at a broken link. The original study, if it existed, is nowhere.

Three specific problems recur.

American data presented as universal. A large share of widely quoted real estate marketing figures come from US sources such as the National Association of Realtors or regional MLS data. The US market differs from the UK in listing practice, portal structure, and agency model. A figure derived from MLS listings tells you little about a Rightmove listing in Islington.

Circular citation. A number gets published once without a source. It is quoted by a second site, which is then cited by a third as if it were the origin. After enough repetition the figure acquires authority it never earned. This is how the “403% more enquiries” statistic became ubiquitous.

No date, no method, no sample. Many quoted figures carry no publication date, no sample size, and no description of how the comparison was made. A claim that video listings “sell faster” is meaningless without knowing whether the comparison controlled for price, property type, or location, since the kind of property that gets a video is not a random sample.

None of this means professional photography and video do not work. It means the honest case rests on fewer and better numbers than the industry usually cites, plus the obvious mechanical argument: a listing that presents a property clearly gets more attention than one that does not.

Verified: UK portal and listing data

These figures come from the portals themselves or from named measurement firms.

The two portal-share figures are worth noting together. They measure the same thing and disagree by ten percentage points, which is a useful reminder that even well-sourced statistics carry methodological variance. Quoting a range is more honest than picking whichever number suits the argument.

Verified: UK sales market, 2026

Context matters when interpreting marketing performance. These are the conditions listings are competing in.

• 15 weeks: average time to find a buyer in North London (GetAgent, 2026)

• Around 39%: proportion of London listings reduced in price before selling, with roughly a 5% gap between original asking price and sale price

• 4,629: record number of unsold new-build homes held by London developers, worth approximately £3.5 billion

• Over 22,000: total unsold London new homes including those under construction, of which around 3,600 are completed and standing empty

• 5,606 vs 8,840: London new-build sales in the first half of 2026 against the same period in 2025, a fall of roughly 37%

• 11%: share of new London homes sold off-plan in 2025, down from more than 50% a decade earlier

• 7%: proportion of London’s housing target actually started in Q1 2026 (Greater London Authority)

Verified: UK lettings market, 2026

These come from Zoopla’s Rental Market Report, which publishes methodology and updates monthly. It is among the more reliable UK sources in this field.

The lettings figures are the clearest illustration of why presentation now matters more than it did. When a property received 15 enquiries it let regardless of how it was photographed. At 5.6 enquiries, the margin between a well-presented listing and a poor one is the difference between letting in 20 days and letting in 40.

Verified: short lets and Airbnb

Airbnb published its own analysis of professional photography, which makes it unusually well evidenced for this field. The sample size and period are stated, which most quoted figures in property marketing are not.

• 21%: average increase in host earnings over the following 365 days for listings using Airbnb Professional Photography, from an evaluation of over 14,700 global listings between 2024 and 2025 (Airbnb)

• 19%: net uplift in bookings across the same study (Airbnb)

• 90 nights: annual cap on entire-home short lets in Greater London without planning permission, under the Deregulation Act 2015

• Up to £20,000: potential fine for exceeding the cap without permission

Note the framing on the Airbnb figures. They are first-party data from a company with a commercial interest in hosts buying photography, which is worth stating plainly. The sample size and defined comparison period still make them considerably stronger than the unsourced alternatives.

Six statistics you should stop quoting

Each of these appears constantly in property marketing content, including, until recently, some of ours. We could not trace any of them to a primary study with stated methodology.

We are not claiming these figures are false. We are saying we cannot show they are true, and neither can the pages quoting them. If you are writing a pitch, a vendor presentation, or an article, using an unverifiable number is a risk: the one person in the room who checks it will discount everything else you said.

The better argument does not need them. UK lettings enquiries have fallen by roughly two thirds since 2022. Time to let has risen from 13 days to 20. London holds a record 4,629 unsold new homes. In a market with that much competition for attention, the case for presenting a property properly does not depend on a disputed percentage.

How to cite this page

These figures are free to use. If they are useful to you, a link back is appreciated and helps other people find the sourcing.

If you are a journalist or researcher and need clarification on any figure, or want the underlying source links, get in touch and we will send them over. If you spot an error, tell us and we will correct it and note the correction.

Related reading: our guide to Rightmove and Zoopla photo and video specifications and our explainer on who owns copyright in property photographs.

Frequently asked questions

How many photos should a UK property listing have?

Zoopla recommends 15 or more for sales listings and 6 to 10 for lettings listings, stated in its own guidance to member agents. Rightmove is less prescriptive publicly. Property size sets a practical ceiling, since a studio flat cannot support the same image count as a large house.

How many enquiries does a UK rental property get?

An average of 5.6 per property as at May 2026, according to Zoopla’s Rental Market Report. That is down from a peak of 15.5 in 2022 and represents the lowest level of competition for rented homes in six years. The average time to find a tenant has risen to 20 days, from 13 days at the 2022 peak.

Is it true that property videos get 403% more enquiries?

We could not verify it. The figure is attributed to a source called PropertyNest, but no study, methodology, sample size, or publication date is findable, and the sites quoting it generally cite each other rather than an original. We would not use it, and we would treat any article that does as loosely sourced.

How many unsold new-build homes are there in London?

London developers hold a record 4,629 unsold new homes worth approximately £3.5 billion. Counting stock still under construction, the total exceeds 22,000, including around 3,600 completed units standing empty. New-build sales in the first half of 2026 fell roughly 37% year on year, to 5,606 homes.

What share of UK property portal traffic does Rightmove have?

Comscore data indicates over 80% of time spent on UK property portals is on Rightmove; SimilarWeb puts the same measure above 70%. The gap between two reputable measurement firms on the same question is a useful illustration of methodological variance, and quoting the range is more accurate than choosing one figure.

Can I use these statistics in my own article or presentation?

Yes. They are free to use. A link back to this page is appreciated and helps readers reach the sourcing. If you need the underlying source links or want a figure clarified, contact us and we will provide them.