Property transaction times: why completions are taking longer

Property completions now take over 17 weeks on average – significantly longer than most buyers expect. New research reveals why transaction times keep extending and what’s being done to speed things up.

When you think about moving home, it’s quite likely that you will have an impatience to get to the point where you can take possession of the keys and step across the threshold for the first time as the property’s new owner.

It’s quite reasonable because it is quite a momentous step in your life, and a correspondingly significant financial investment as well as all the emotional upheaval that inevitably comes with it – after all, moving home is regularly cited as being one of the most draining and stressful points in anyone’s life (after a death of a loved one and getting married).

It’s perhaps because of all this that many homebuyers expect the passage of time to be much shorter than is the reality. And it’s understandable, particularly since the average time between the ‘sold subject to contract’ sign going up outside your planned purchase and obtaining the keys is extending.

How long does conveyancing actually take?

This is according to the latest research by the Landmark Information Group, which underlines the fact that the average number of days from instructing a solicitor to completion is 123 days (or 17.6 weeks, which is about three months). Landmark’s An industry aligned: Moving towards certainty report (issued 28 January) shows that this is an 18% increase over the duration experienced in 2019, and an incredible 64% increase from that faced in 2007.

Part of the problem is with the buyer’s expectations being out of kilter with the reality – the report identifies the ideal average timeframe is just under seven weeks. Because of this disparity, it’s understandable that there is increased frustration and stress as a consequence. To understand what happens at each stage of the process, read our conveyancing timeline guide.

Why are property transaction times extending?

First of all, it’s worth pointing out that, while market fluctuations and global and domestic financial pressures play their part in adding time to the process, the fact that the length of time from instruction to completion has consistently increased shows that the problem is more systemic.

Over the period of the last fifteen years, there has been necessary increases in the legal, identity verification and risk information that must be provided before the transaction can be successfully moved forward. Since all this additional information is critical to the success of the home’s purchase, it has to be fitted into the timescale before completion is achieved, which can only be facilitated by adding further time to the process.

Project 28: the solution to faster property transactions

Homeward Legal reported on Project 28 in September, which is a charter drawn up by Landmark and supported by lenders and property professionals to provide faster property transactions but with no loss of integrity in the process, while also increasing the certainty of the transaction reaching the completion milestone without dropping out beforehand.

What Landmark’s latest report also shows is that most consumers support most of the plans mooted in the Project 28 credentials. Instructing a solicitor earlier in the process, changing the onus for the home survey to be the seller’s responsibility as part of the up-front information, clarity of information and the purpose of checks and verifications, and better use of technology such as artificial intelligence.

This is still a work in progress, of course, but the professionals involved – from estate agents to conveyancing solicitors and from lenders to chartered surveyors – are all supportive of the plans, which should see a marked improvement in the elapsed time from instruction of a solicitor to the point of completion. And it should then help to manage the expectations of the customer when it comes to estimating the length of time – having to respond to the customer’s frustrations over how long things are taking only serves to add time to the process.

How faster transactions benefit buyers and sellers

Any reduction in time and the streamlining of the process should also minimise the risk of fallthroughs and the possibility of gazumping (where a seller accepts a higher offer after originally accepting yours). It should also see a significant reduction in the cost of wasted effort by estate agents and conveyancers each year, which should help with the overall costs to the customer – you.

Kindly shared by Homeward LegalImage courtesy of Adobe