Selling and moving home in Britain now takes an average of 216 days, the longest wait since records began, according to property website Rightmove.
A typical seller spends 62 days finding a buyer, then waits another 154 days from accepting an offer to completing the move. Rightmove described the overall timeline as the longest summer wait on record.
London leads the wait
Sellers and buyers in London face the longest delays of any region. It takes 70 days on average to find a buyer there, followed by 174 days to go from agreeing a sale to completing the move, for a total of 244 days, or roughly eight months.
The East of England and South East both recorded total moving times of 237 days. The South West came in at 233 days.
The North East of England was the fastest region in England, with sellers finding a buyer in 53 days and a further 141 days to complete, totalling 194 days.
Scotland moves fastest
Scotland is the quickest part of Britain for completing a home sale. Sellers there find a buyer in just 29 days on average, and the process from accepted offer to completion takes 98 days, bringing the total to 127 days, or just over four months.
Rightmove attributed Scotland's faster pace in part to its distinct legal process, which includes greater use of upfront information, Home Reports, and earlier certainty for buyers and sellers.
Within Scotland, Clackmannanshire is the fastest area, where the legal process of buying a home takes 76 days. Angus and Dumfries and Galloway each take 77 days.
Flats slowest, lawyers stretched
Flats are the slowest property type to complete, taking 169 days, while terraced and semi-detached houses take 149 days.
Rightmove said delays stem from multiple sources, including searches that raise issues with a property and problems elsewhere in the chain. The company also pointed to overworked lawyers, describing conveyancers and other stakeholders as managing increasingly high caseloads while navigating a fragmented and manual moving process.
Johan Svanstrom, Rightmove's chief executive, said the entire home-moving process currently takes more than seven months on average. He said an average 154-day wait to complete the transaction process itself was simply far too long, and called for greater digitisation, stronger information standards, and more transparency for all parties involved.
Brad Fordham, head of mortgage distribution and underwriting at NatWest Group, said the figures showed the industry needed to reduce the time it takes people to move house in the UK. He said delays within the conveyancing process cause emotional distress and real financial costs for customers, and described widespread adoption of digital technology as the fastest way to accelerate the home ownership journey.
Government reform proposals
Labour announced proposals last month aimed at modernising the home-buying process in England and Wales. Around one in three agreed sales currently fail to complete before exchange, official figures show, often leaving buyers and sellers out of pocket after paying for surveys, legal work, and mortgage costs.
A central element of the reforms is the wider use of reservation agreements, under which buyers and sellers each pay a fee and agree to progress the sale within a set timeframe. Those who pull out would lose the fee, giving both sides a financial stake in completing the deal.
Ministers also want more information about a property to be made available before it is listed for sale, so buyers can make better-informed decisions from the outset.
Rightmove estimated there is approximately 205 billion pounds in residential property value currently listed for sale on its platform.
