Move into rented or lose buyer - help!

[MovingHouse2025]

We're close to exchange on the sale of our house, but have just found out that there's a chance that our onward purchase might fall through due to an issue with the last house in the chain.

Our buyers are first time buyers and have always said they wanted to be in by 31st March because of stamp duty. There's a good chance they might pull out if we don't make that completion date.

In the current market, I really don't want to lose our buyers - I've found the whole process of selling incredibly stressful and the thought of going back to square one and starting again is horrid. Plus I can see the advantage that being chain free would give us when looking at other properties. However, I also don't really love the idea of going into a rental - we're due our second baby in a few months and the temporary nature of a rental feels like we would be in limbo when I'm supposed to be nesting / bonding with a new born.

I know no one will be able to definitely say what's right / wrong, but WWYD in this scenario? Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did it play out?!

Thanks in advance.

We’ve ended up renting. I regret it as we are in London and it’s costing us nearly 4 times as much as our mortgage was but, like you, I really didn’t fancy starting the whole process again. I think it probably was the right decision but if we don’t find somewhere to buy soon I feel like we will be looking at a year in a rental which is not what we envisaged at all.

We did this last house move. Our house had sold and the buyer was super keen to have it asap and because it had a flood issue which the buyer didn’t care about, we didn’t want to risk losing him. He was buying to Airbnb it and wanted the summer season. This was just post pandemic. So we rented a smaller but lovely modern house and put over 50% of our stuff into storage. It was much easier & cheaper than I thought it was going to be and pretty stress free. Then we got a fabulous deal on the house we now have as we had nothing to sell and they wanted a super quick sale as they were relocating. Really made the whole process much less stressful without a chain too. We also had a cross over of two weeks too so it wasn’t a mad move out and in all in a day.

Yes! We’ve been through the same process. Ex and I were on the process of separating and we also had a deadline to sell the place due to secondary school applications as we were changing councils.
This was in the midst of Lizz Truzz mini budget. Sellers wanted a big hair cut or they would pull out but we couldn’t wait because of the school.
We’ve kept the sale process and jointly moved into a small cheap rental (even though we were separating!).
It took me one year to find a place to buy and it was great to be chain free! Ex is just about to move to his own flat this month (took him 2 years to find everything he wanted).
It was a pain but I am very glad with the overall outcome of the process.
I think I would do the same if I ever want to move houses again. I don’t want to be in a chain.

Contributing to the difference is a good suggestion. Fingers crossed OP. I'm another that couldn't rent. I've got a 'thing' about other peoples' carpets 🫤

We did it with 2 young dc 13 years ago...
We chose a small property that we would soon get fed up of to give us the impetus to keep looking.
We were there 4 months until we found this house.
(We had to pay the rental for 6 months but that worked out well as we could take our time moving).
We were chain free, AIP in place and deposit in bank. We saw this house on the friday afternoon, phoned for a viewing on the Saturday morning, offered on the monday morning and by the monday afternoon our offer had been accepted.
(It was a part-ex property so being sold by the building company so that did make a difference)
Whole process took 6 weeks.
It can work, but you have to be committed to finding another property.
Get listed with all the local agents and make clear your proceedability.
Rent the smallest place you can cope with.
Good luck

Exa the same situation here, thought we were a week or two from moving, did a final viewing and realised there’s a boundary issue the vendors didn’t mention and surveyors didn’t pick up. There’s some other issues that survey found that we were trying to be ok with but it’s all too much so we are pulling out.

I don’t want to loose our buyers so debating rental.