The share of homes taken to auction that actually found a buyer in the week ending 16 August 2026 — down from 69.8% the same week a year earlier. A near-21-point fall in twelve months.

There's a phrase that has circulated for years among people who treat bricks as the safest harbour there is: "property always goes up in the end." It's a phrase that has held true for long stretches — and, looking at August's numbers, it deserves the same scrutiny as any other investment thesis: data, not folklore.