It’s taking longer and longer for property sales to move from the acceptance of an offer to an exchange of contracts - bad news for landlords wanting a quick exit from the sector.
That’s the news from estate agent trade body Propertymark which says some 41 per cent of agents have reported average times stretching to beyond four months. This is a new record and stands well above the pre-pandemic average for July of only six per cent reporting such long delays.
The trade body’s latest sales market analysis shows that the volume of new buyers registering per Propertymark member branch in July remains relatively low. There were nine sales agreed on average per member branch in July – the same number as the previous three months.
Propertymark chief executive Nathan Emerson says: “Our latest data shows a sharp spike in the number of agents reporting the average time taken for sales to complete being 17 weeks or longer. This, coupled with lack of stock and high demand in the market, is proving difficult for some first-time buyers or current homeowners as an existing mortgage in principle obtained before setting out to view a property will likely expire before completing on the purchase.”
Sales agreed as a percentage of stock held by sales agents remains at 39 per cent in July, while the average number of properties available to buy per member branch last month was 24. This is far below the pre-pandemic July average of 51 properties.
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This is certainly my experience & conveyancers working from home seems to be a major contributing factor. It is time everyone got back to the office!
I had an excellent conveyancing solicitor , tell him what to do and when and it was done, sadly now retired, seems present day solicitors are just a waste of space
The delays in the system and mistakes made by mortgage brokers are horrendous.
My son has been homeless for weeks due to delays in the chain. 6 months after his offer was accepted the transaction 2 people above him is still only at underwriter stage. His mortgage offer will expire in 7 weeks time. The broker he used was dreadful (applied weeks later than he said he was going to and for the wrong product, which will mean over 5 years he will have to pay £1800 more than he should have) but maybe that error will mean the offer doesn't expire before the rest of the chain is ready?
It took 4 months for me to complete on a newly converted flat with no chain. A different incompetent mortgage broker messed that one up. Gave me an illustration for the 5 year product I wanted but then applied for a 2 year product. I spotted his mistake in May and immediately asked him to reapply for the correct product. He didn't, so the offer finally arrived in July for the 2 year deal. The mortgage lender gave me the choice of accepting the 2 year deal or I could have a 5 year deal at 4.95% instead of the 2.95% on the original illustration. As they were on a 20 day response time by that stage, neither deal was suitable and the vendor was about to pull out I finished up paying cash. Which was supposed to be the deposits for 2 more properties.
Between me and my son we have paid around £1600 in broker fees for total incompetence as they all seem to go for the lifetime fee concept. £500 or £600 as a one off fee, then £149 for every mortgage application after that.
Anyone know if either of us can apply for compensation for these broker errors? If so, how? Mine has so far offered to refund £299 but hasn't actually made the payment yet.
All mortgage brokers/intermediaries are regulated by the FCA. Google FCA>Make a complaint. Assuming he is compliant and has registered etc, he will not want you making a complaint to them, a whole world of pain and admin, especially if they have made the errors. Would be suprised if you pointed that out that he doesnt try a lot harder with the refund, assuming you can prove the mistakes of course.
My banks equally useless , asked for fixed term loans ended up with variable
Now going up by hundreds of pounds a month
Thx RBS , rubbish bank of Scotland
I can only speak as I find but Barclays have always been good to me, but we have lost those 'proper' bank managers that made the decision there and then at their desk
Barclays used to be really good both for BTL and residential mortgages for people whose main income is from property letting. They're still better than most for residential but lost the plot ages ago on BTL. Very picky on number of properties in portfolio, number of existing mortgages, type of tenants, don't like HMOs or anything other than a joint AST.
I know someone who recently got a low rate fixed for 5 years just in the nick of time, wouldn’t be a hope now.
We have had the broker problem too with a flat bought at auction. The delay could have cost us a lot of penalties if the vendors solicitor had not made a mistake which held up the sale by a couple of months.
Conveyancing seems so slow also. we have been told 14 to 18 weeks for a straightforward no-chain transaction we are working on currently. If numbers of instructions are so much lower, and so much can now be done electronically, it is hard to understand how things have got so slow.
There is nothing stopping you doing your own conveyancing, not done it myself but I do know people who have done so, it's not rocket science
Stretching to 17 weeks, so it was less than that? Cant remember it being reported at less than 20 for a long time, and most commentators have put it at 22-24, even 26 weeks in recent months.
I've agreed a purchase on a Monday and completed on the Friday lunch time before now, but they were cash purchases
Bring back the good old days when it took less than a month from viewing to completion.
Back in 2001 I viewed a property on 9/11. The estate agent was the person who told me about the twin towers. That sale completed on 1st October. It had just had squatters evicted and I needed to obtain a mortgage.
In 2011 it took 27 days from a property appearing on Rightmove to completion. It was a probate sale and again I had to obtain a mortgage.
Surely with all the advances in computers and electronic communication it should be quicker not slower now.
There are no valid reasons, "the bits" you need are all available more quickly than ever before and direct, noone needs a mortgage broker to get a mortgage, or a lawyer to get a search pack, its only the process and people involved protecting their slice of pie that create delays. There are too many expensive fees at stake that would be lost if it all went digital and happened as easily as it could.
That day will come though, APIs to UPRN led property log books are already underway, harvesting data into one place and will make it impossible for a lawyer for example to justify charging more than a couple of hundred £ for what will be a quick sign off for a lender, as opposed to the £1500+ they charge now all framed under the mystique of complicated legal property advice you cant do without.
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