Research of over 101,000 property sales over the last 12 months shows flats take an average of 24 days longer than houses to complete.
Home buying specialists and auctioneer Property Solvers’ latest research of 101,126 house sale transactions has revealed that semi-detached houses sold in the shortest time frame between June 2022 and June 2023
Tracking transactions from the point of listing on the UK’s leading property portals right through to completion – as confirmed at HM Land Registry – 32,109 semi-detached homes took an average of 150 days to sell.
Close behind came terraced houses, where 30,009 transactions took an average of 152 days to sell from start to finish. 28,664 detached property home sales took an average of 155 days to complete over the same period.
Slowest to sell were flats and apartments – where 10,344 properties took an average of 176 days to go through the sales process. Note that the number of days included weekends.
Commenting on the data, Property Solvers co-founder Ruban Selvanayagam said:
“It may come as little surprise that flats take longer to sell due to the extra Law Society paperwork and protracted legal enquiries with freeholder/management companies.
Although houses can often come with their own set of issues, the process tends to be a little easier to navigate.”
The research also demonstrated that properties were selling in as little as two weeks on occasions. “These are often cash purchases where buyers are not reliant on mortgage finance and where the conveyancing paperwork is already prepared well in advance to facilitate a quicker transaction,” Selvanayagam observes. He added:
“In terms of getting a speedier sale – regardless of the type of property transaction – both the buyer and the seller need to take a proactive role in ensuring things move in the right direction. Working with a good estate agent, conveyancing solicitor and mortgage broker is also crucial.”
