New analysis by Rightmove reveals the extent of the north-south divide when moving home.
London is the slowest region in Great Britain to complete a move, taking an average of 174 days from agreed sale to completion, or nearly six months. This is the joint-longest at this time of year for London in Rightmove’s records dating back to 2012.
By contrast, in the North East of England, it is over a month (33 days on average) quicker to complete a property transaction. The North East is the quickest region in England to complete a move.
Scotland is the fastest part of Great Britain overall to complete a move (98 days on average) due to its different legal processes. This includes greater use of upfront information, Home Reports and earlier certainty for buyers and sellers.
Looking at the data more locally, Clackmannanshire in Scotland is the fastest area to complete in Great Britain (76 days), while Slough in England is the slowest (229 days). North East Derbyshire is the fastest area to complete outside of Scotland (120 days).
It currently takes 216 days on average for a seller to move in Great Britain, made up of 62 days to find a buyer and 154 days to complete the move, the longest this total process has taken at this time of year on record.
Flats are the slowest type of property to complete a move (169 days), versus terraced and semi-detached houses (149 days).
Long-term increases to the completion process, despite advances in technology, point to broader issues in the system. It takes over a month (36 days) longer to complete a move than in pre-pandemic 2019, a 31% increase.
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.
It supports the government’s home-moving reform plans, which are designed to reduce lengthy completion times through better and earlier information sharing and the digitisation of processes
Johan Svanstrom, Rightmove’s CEO, commented: “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.”
