Average time to sell remains static despite regional variations - research

The average time it takes to sell a house from listing to completion has dropped by 0.7% in the past year, new research suggests.

Analysis of property sale times shows transaction timelines have fallen from 241 days down to 240 days.

But while the national picture looks largely unchanged, there are a number of local markets where the timeline has either sped up or slowed down to a remarkable extent. 

The research by Yopa found that the average time to sell in in Hampshire’s Test Valley district has fallen from 1,045 days from instruction to completion in 2022 to just 216 last year.

In Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the average time to sell has fallen from 687 days to 249 and it has dropped by 402 days in South Somerset to 232.

Meanwhile, the current average selling timeline in Suffolk’s local authority district of Forest Heath increased by 451 days to 595 between 2022 and the end of 2023.

In Warwick, the average has increased by 326 days so that it now takes 552 days to sell and in Ribble Valley, Lancashire, the annual increase is 312 days.

Verona Frankish, chief executive of Yopa, said: “It’s been a strange few years for the UK property market and there’s no doubt that cooling market conditions have caused some sellers considerable delays when selling, due to the fact that they simply haven’t been able to secure a buyer at the speeds seen in previous years. 

“Of course, a slower market does have its benefits for those who are able to find a buyer. With the industry coming under less strain due to lower sales volumes, the actual process of moving from accepting an offer to completion has improved considerably in some areas of the nation.”