The average time to exchange in the UK is now 123 days, or 4.1 months, new data from property analytics company TwentyCi has revealed.
After a reaching a peak of 4.3 months in 2022, the average time taken to exchange dropped to four months in 2023 and 2024. The time has now crept back up to 4.2 months – but with significant regional variations.
“Our 2025 data shows that ‘time to exchange’ continues to vary significantly by region, from around 2.9 months in Scotland to 4.6 months in Outer London and the East of England,” said Katy Billany, executive director of TwentyEA.
“This underlines how local market conditions and legal-system differences remain major drivers of transaction speed. Nationwide, the average has crept up over recent years (from roughly 3.0 months in 2019 to about 4.1 months in 2025), confirming that the trend towards longer waits to exchange contracts is far from resolved.”
In Outer London and the East of England, it takes an average of 4.6 months to complete on a property purchase. In Inner London, it’s 4.2 months, with four months in the North West of England and the East Midlands.
The North East is the best performing region in England at 3.6 months, with Yorkshire and the Humber and Wales at 3.8 months.
| UK Region | Time to exchange in 2025 (months) |
| Scotland | 2.9 |
| Northern Ireland | 4.1 |
| North East | 3.6 |
| North West | 4.0 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 3.8 |
| East Midlands | 4.0 |
| West Midlands | 3.9 |
| Wales | 3.8 |
| East of England | 4.6 |
| Outer London | 4.6 |
| Inner London | 4.2 |
| South East | 4.5 |
| South West | 4.3 |
Source: TwentyCi
Billany added:
“With many buyers waiting four months or more just to exchange, this extended timeline puts pressure on affordability, adds uncertainty for sellers and buyers alike, and magnifies the risk of fall-throughs, especially when interest rates or economic conditions shift part-way through the process.
“In our opinion, the MHCLG’s consultation, focussed on reducing transaction timelines and costs for buyers, especially first-time buyers cannot conclude fast enough. As a group, TwentyCi has committed to Project 28 which aims to slash the time from ‘sale agreed’ to exchange from roughly 100+ days down to just 28, a major step toward reliability, transparency and fewer failed sales.
“With this growing focus and industry momentum, we’re hopeful that steps toward meaningful change will begin to take shape as we move into 2026.”
4 responses
I study this data more than most and it’s brilliant but regional variations are down to mainly one factor – the amount of leasehold property in that area – so East Yorkshire and north lincs are the fastest with time to complete sub 100 days – London is the slowest
Individual firms can and do vary significantly blowing the myth you can only be as quick as the slowest
Those with efficient systems and who engage with sellers when listing a property – (you need to work with agents in this) cut times significantly giving a better outcome
The idea of getting it down to 28 days without changing the system completely (which is not going to happen ) is la la land thinking
I have bought and sold houses all over England and North America and the length of time to close a sale/purchase in England can only be described as way out of step with the rest of the world.
I have bought and sold within homes in Canada within 2 weeks and the people involved with the archaic process here report the average takes over 4 MONTHS…and climbing…incredible.
Incredible??…well, not really considering the ‘closed shop’ hold the legal ‘profession’ has over the entire process….and the conveyancing group are talking about reducing the time….good luck with that considering the legal system involvement/control over the process.
Our latest experience was less than 4 months and the lawyers involved charged us for taking less time to close!….The ‘fast’ close was due to the fact that both ends of the deal required NO legal involvement.
Perhaps you should start by looking at why deals in Scotland have such an average shorter time to close vs England.
I can deal with transactions very quickly if I have a competent conveyancer either side of me and well below the times stated above. However, the reality for most conveyancers these days is that they are dealing with inexperienced and unqualified paralegals either side of them, working for firms owned by tech giants or conveyancing factories. Or worst still, unqualified self employed sub consultants who are left to their own devices with no supervision at all by the Consultancy Firms. With the best will in the world, if the conveyancer lacks experience and knowledge, transactions will continue to drag on and stats like this will get worse and worse. If we have fully experienced and fully qualified Conveyancers, who who can properly assess the risk within the transaction and know what enquiries to raise and when they can take a view on certain matters, the transaction can go through competently and efficiently in record time. However with all of these inexperienced and unqualified and unsupervised conveyancers at the forefront, how can we get there?
I agree with you. I am a retired Solicitor and dealt with residential transactions over a 45 year period. I witnessed the dumbing down and the appearance of paralegals whatever they are. You refer to “taking a view”. This just does not happen now and is replaced by a suite of overpriced and worthless indemnity policies. Sadly I can’t see anything changing as the factory type set up and the paralegal model is fed by greedy estate agents who are allowed to extract referral fees whilst at the same time treating their and our clients as a commodity.