Help needed. Sold house but purchasers have gone past finance date

Yes bridging can be hard to get. The main thing is the time factor now – everything is slow at Christmas so they probably won't know for a while if they can actually get the finance so prepare for them pulling out at the last min and don't count on settlement occuring, but it still might. You may be able to terminate the contract and look for another buyer – but I would keep it with them for now and keep looking and if you find someone then terminate just before signing up the new one.