SSTC meaning: what sold subject to contract means

SSTC stands for sold subject to contract. It means the seller has accepted an offer, but the sale is not legally binding yet. Either side can still walk away, and the property can still come back on the market. The gap between offer and exchange is where most sales are won or lost.

What does SSTC mean in England and Wales?

SSTC is shorthand for sold subject to contract, and it describes the stage where a seller has accepted an offer but nothing has been signed that either side must honour.

When you see SSTC on a listing, or hear an agent say sold STC or under offer, it means the same thing: terms have been agreed in principle, and the buyer and seller are now working through the legal and financial steps that lead to exchange of contracts. Gov.uk sets out the buying process, and it is at exchange that the agreement becomes binding, not at the point the offer is accepted.

Nothing in the SSTC stage guarantees a completion. Buyers change their minds, mortgage offers are withdrawn, surveys turn up problems, and chains break. The property stays in a state of agreed but not committed until exchange.

What happens between offer and exchange?

After an offer is accepted, most of the work is legal and financial rather than practical: the buyer arranges a survey and a mortgage valuation, the solicitors raise searches and enquiries, and both sides negotiate the draft contract.

The steps usually look like this:

• The seller's solicitor prepares the draft contract and sends it to the buyer's solicitor.
• The buyer's solicitor orders local authority searches and other standard searches for the area.
• The buyer arranges a survey, and the lender arranges its own valuation if a mortgage is being used.
• The buyer's lender issues a formal mortgage offer once it is satisfied with the property and the buyer's circumstances.
• Both solicitors raise enquiries about the title, boundaries, rights of way, alterations and anything the survey flagged.
• Answers come back, any remaining questions are resolved, and a completion date is agreed.
• Contracts are signed, and then exchanged.

Exchange is the turning point. Before it, the sale is only agreed. After it, both sides are committed and completion follows on the date written into the contract.

Does SSTC take the property off the market?

SSTC usually means the seller has stopped actively marketing the property, but the listing often stays visible with the status marked so that buyers know it is not available in the usual way.

Practice varies between agents and sellers. Some take the property off the market entirely. Others leave it listed, stop arranging viewings, and treat it as unavailable. A seller can still accept a different offer before exchange, because no contract binds them yet.

That cuts both ways. Buyers can walk away after spending money on a survey and searches. Sellers can lose weeks and be left with a property that has to be remarketed.

If you are the buyer, ask the agent directly how firm the sale is, whether the buyer has a mortgage in place, and whether there is a chain. If you are the seller, ask what your agency agreement says about the status of your listing and what happens if a better offer arrives before exchange.

Can either side pull out before exchange?

Yes. Until contracts are exchanged, neither the buyer nor the seller is legally committed, and either can withdraw, because there is no contract to breach.

The costs of pulling out are practical, not contractual. A buyer who withdraws may already have paid for a survey, searches and legal work. A seller who is let down may have taken the property off the market, turned away other buyers, and paid legal fees. A buyer who tries to reduce the price late in the process, once the seller feels committed in practice but is not committed in law, is doing what is often called gazundering. A seller who accepts a higher offer after agreeing a sale is gazumping.

Because neither side is bound, the sensible precautions are the same for both: keep the timetable moving, answer enquiries quickly, and confirm the buyer's mortgage position early.

How SSTC relates to sold price records

An SSTC property is not a sold property, and it will not appear in sold price records at that stage.

Sold price data for England and Wales comes from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, which records sales once they are registered. Registration follows completion, not the offer. So a property marked SSTC today has no recorded sale price yet, and if the sale falls through, it never will.

That matters when you compare homes. A listing that says SSTC tells you what someone has agreed to pay in principle, not what has been paid. If you want to know what homes in a street or area actually changed hands for, use completed sale records such as Sold house prices, and see how those figures are assembled on the Methodology page. If you are weighing up your own property, an estimate is a separate exercise from comparable sales, and it belongs on House value.

Once a sale does complete and register, it appears in the price data for that locality, which is what the area pages and the House price map are built on. Until then, an SSTC status is a signal of intent, nothing more.

Frequently asked questions

Is SSTC the same as sold?

No. SSTC means a sale has been agreed subject to contract, while sold in everyday use means the sale completed and the property changed hands. In the records, only the completed sale has a price.

Can I still make an offer on an SSTC property?

Yes, in principle, because the sale is not binding until contracts are exchanged, so the seller is still free to consider an offer. Agents often will not arrange viewings, so ask the agent to pass your offer to the seller and be prepared for it to be declined.

How long does a property stay SSTC?

There is no fixed period. A property stays SSTC from the moment an offer is accepted until contracts are exchanged or the sale falls through, and the length depends on the chain, the mortgage, the searches and how quickly enquiries are answered.