The entire British buying and selling process is getting slower – with flats the slowest of all.
This represents bad news in the light of the Renters Rights Act law changes, and the exodus of landlords from the private rental sector.
New analysis by Rightmove says that it takes an average of 62 days for the seller of any type of property (flat or house) to find a buyer.
And then it takes up to another 174 days from agreed sale to completion in some parts of the country.
London is the slowest region in Britain to complete a move, taking an average of 174 days from agreed sale to completion. By contrast, in the North East of England, it is 33 days quicker.
Scotland is the fastest part of Britain overall to complete a move (98 days in total) due to its different legal processes. This includes greater upfront information, Home Reports and early certainty for buyers and sellers.
Contrast that with the all-Britain average where it currently takes 216 days for a seller to move, made up of 62 days to find a buyer and 154 days to complete the move.
But behind those averages, flats are even worse performers.
To complete a flat’s move from agreed sale to completion takes a typical 169 days, versus terraced and semi-detached houses on 149 days.
Bizarrely, it now takes 36 days longer to complete a move than in pre-pandemic 2019.
Individual delays can be caused by a variety of factors including chain length, searches and leasehold complexity.
However, a big driver of long completion times is conveyancers and other stakeholders managing increasingly high caseloads, navigating what is a fragmented and manual moving process.
Rightmove analysis earlier this year also found that 23% of transactions initially fall through, while around 6% of property transactions fall through and don’t come back to market within 12 months, with long completion times and an uncertain process a key cause.
The portal says it backs government moves to reform the process, because an improved and shortened home-moving process would benefit estate agents, who often have to hold complex chains together for elongated periods, resulting in completion fees for their work delayed.
Johan Svanstrom, Rightmove’s CEO says:“A healthy housing market depends on people being able to move home easily and with certainty. However, the entire home-moving process currently takes more than seven months on average, making this the longest summer wait on record.
“An average 154 day wait to complete the transaction process itself is simply far too long. Rightmove data shows that in some parts of the country the delays are even more significant. Housing mobility is closely linked to economic growth. We believe greater digitisation of moving journey processes, stronger information standards and transparency to all stakeholders is key.”
Rightmove says it is working to digitise the home-moving journey through the launch of products and consumer home-moving features.
