Revealed! The UK’s fastest and slowest property completion areas 

Homes in Birmingham and East London are among the slowest in the UK to sell from listing to completion, analysis suggests.

Property data firm MoveSmart, created by home-buying service Spring, used figures from Government sources including the Land Registry and statistical technology firm Propalt to find the time from listing to completion ranges from 15 weeks to as much as 48 weeks.

From the day of listing, the average home in Birmingham City centre took 48 weeks to completion, while in Summerfield Park in Birmingham, the average time was 35 weeks to completion. 

The average home in Clapton, East London took 40 weeks from the day of listing to completion, according to the research.

Even in the fastest locations, time from listing to completion is between three to four months. 

The fastest areas include Formby in Liverpool, where it took 15 weeks for a sale to complete, while  Dinckley in Blackburn and Swanage in Bournemouth both registered average completion times of 16 weeks.

Cormac Henderson, chief executive of Spring, said: “Historically, sales in major cities like Birmingham and London have been reasonably fast to transact, however, with less and less people wanting to live in dense urban areas due to new lifestyle choices, ongoing demand for flexible working and greater demand for outside space, it isn’t surprising to see the slowdown. 

“However, we must also remember that conveyancing demand in these areas is likely to be more concentrated, which will play a part in the overall completion time.

“It is fascinating to see that Swanage in Bournemouth and Formby in Liverpool are at the top of the table for places where homes are completing the fastest. This may signal that more people are looking to relocate nearer the coast, creating hotspots in coastal towns as people seek to make the most of not needing to be in the office full time or at all.”

Top 10 areas with slowest selling properties from listing to completion in the UK.

Top 10 areas with fastest selling properties from listing to completion