Property deals are being delayed due to buyers hesitating when it comes to selling their own homes, research suggests.

Research by GetAgent Exchange, which helps agents monetise out-of-area applicant leads, has found that whilst the majority of homebuyers also have a property to sell themselves, 41% don’t consider selling their current property until having started the viewing process for their new home.

This can cause issues, given that 59% of those looking to purchase a property also had a property of their own to sell.

The survey of 960 homebuyers found a quarter begin the process of selling their home once they had started to view potential new homes, whilst 7% did not start selling until they had submitted offers on new properties.

A further one in 10 only started the selling process once they had an offer accepted or their new purchase had completed.

With many buyers waiting until later in the purchasing process before considering the sale of their current property, it’s no surprise that, for 37%, the process of selling their existing property caused delays to the purchase of their new property.

The most common reason was that they believed they should have started the selling process earlier than they did.

The second most common reason was that the agent they chose to sell their home took longer than they expected to sell the property, with the process of selling generally taking longer than expected also ranking as a key issue.

Colby Short, chief executive of GetAgent, said: “The majority of homebuyers also have a property to sell and whilst many start the process of finding a selling agent early on, a large proportion don’t consider the sale of their current property until later in the property purchasing cycle.

“When they do, they can often find the purchase of their new home is delayed due to the time it takes to sell their current property.

“This presents a great opportunity for buying agents to capitalise on potential out-of-area leads.
“Of course, this can be easier said than done, particularly if you don’t have a network of agents in other areas. That’s exactly why we created GetAgent Exchange, to facilitate the referral process for buying agents, ensuring their buyers are connected with a top-performing selling agent in the area they’re moving from.

“In doing so, they can not only monetise the lead, but they can ensure that both the vendor’s purchase and sale is as problem-free as possible due to the fact that there are high quality agents facilitating both aspects of the move.”