Stamp Duty surge adds weeks to time it takes to complete

It now takes 43 days longer to sell a home than it did a year ago.

Comparison site GetAgent, which makes the claim, has used data from portals to record the point at which a home is listed for sale online; it has then cross-referenced that with Land Registry completion information. 

The data shows that when looking at the average time from a property listed online to when an offer is accepted, the benefit of the stamp duty holiday and the resulting increase in homebuyer demand has been clear.

Between January 1 last year and July 8 - when the holiday was introduced - it was taking an average 138 days from listing to accepting an offer; with the holiday in place, it fell to 124 days.

Looking at the total time to sell from the initial listing of a property to being recorded by the Land Registry as complete, the research shows it’s now taking an average of 295 days to sell a home.

This is 17 days longer when compared to just before the stamp duty holiday was announced and 43 days longer year on year.

“It’s now taking more than six weeks longer to complete a sale than it was the previous year and this can feel like an eternity as anyone who has bought or sold a house will tell you. Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do to bypass this backlog other than sit tight and be patient” claims GetAgent chief executive Colby Short.