In the UK, purchase transactions have taken 23 days longer to get to the point of exchange than in 2019 – from 92 to 115 days – a 25% increase over four years.
HM Land Registry completed 1,883,137 applications in January compared with 1,335,792 in December and 1,777,649 last January 2023, of which:
- 298,750 were applications for register updates compared with 257,519 in December
- 1,095,216 were applications for an official copy of a register compared with 689,205 in December
- 182,512 were search and hold queries (official searches) compared with 178,940 in December
- 84,996 were transactions for value compared with 57,567 in December
- 19,296 were postal applications from non-account holders compared with 16,721 in December
The impact the UK’s home-moving process is having is even more clearly shown when considering that transactions times have increased by 25% from 2019 to 2023, and 74% between 2007 and 2023. In contrast, in Scotland it is widely reported to take only 70-90 days from listing to completion. The reasons for that are:
• More upfront information and information-sharing between property professionals.
o This leads to fewer chains and dropout levels are 3-4x less than in England and Wales.
• Registers of Scotland data readily available.
• Access to and transparency of local authority data
o 32 authorities online can be turned around in 24hrs.
However, the most pressing impact is for sellers – while purchase-side transactions are coming down, those looking to sell are faced with startling increases in transaction times as market uncertainty causes buyer pull-outs and gazumping leading to an extended timeline. The average time from instruction to completion for those selling a house in England and Wales was 159 days – a 9% increase on 2022.
What’s more, recent research has found the UK areas selling homes the most above list price, with East Renfrewshire taking the lead. The study by Getamover.co.uk analysed historical Zoopla data for homes sold at a different amount than the list price. The average sale price, average listing price and the difference between the two were considered to reveal which areas see the most homes above their original list price and how much more on average.
It found that East Renfrewshire has the highest number of properties sold above the list price in the UK. On average, a home in East Renfrewshire is sold for £272,187, but homes are listed initially at an average price of £235,479. This means that potential buyers who are looking to purchase a house in this area are seeing an average price increase of £36,708.
East Dunbartonshire takes second place, with the average home in this area selling for £262,979 compared to its £228,824 list price. The average difference between its sale price and what it originally listed is £34,155. Cambridge comes third on the list, where homes sell for around £31,662 more than originally listed. The average sale price for a home in Cambridge is £779,219, but houses tend to be listed for around £747,557.
In fourth place is Edinburgh, with an average selling price of £329,51; homes in this city tend to be listed at £298,887. The price increase tends to leave potential buyers needing an additional £30,627 more than anticipated. Completing the top five is East Lothian, where homes tend to be listed on average at around £255,219. Despite the original list prices in the area, homes typically sell for £284,675, which is £29,456 more than the original price range.
The City of London is seeing houses sold on average at £807,500. However, homes are typically listed at around £849,983, which is a £42,483 reduction in price. On the other hand, Manchester is listing houses at £228,138 on average, but the properties on the market are selling at an average of £234,848, which is £6,711 more than the average list price.
