Average time to sell a home drops as pandemic market backlog clears

Estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk has recently released its analysis of the time it’s taking to sell a home, with the figures showing the huge market delays experienced during much of the pandemic have finally begun to clear.

GetAgent tracked the average time to sell a home across England and Wales based on the point at which a property is listed for sale and the point at which this sale completes.

The latest data release finds that the average time to sell a home over the last six months presently sits at 248 days, down from an average of 306 days during the previous six months - a fall of 58 days.

By region

At 284 days, the North East is home to the longest average time to sell at regional level, followed by London (277) and the East of England (259), while the West Midlands (213 days), Wales (225) and Yorkshire and the Humber (228) are home to the fastest transaction timelines.

Wales has seen the biggest reduction in the time it’s taking to sell a home, down by 83 days in the last six months. London (-76) and the West Midlands (-68) have also seen some of the largest reductions in the time it’s taking to sell.

At local level

Dartford and the Castle Point area of Essex are currently home to the fastest time to sell a home at just 142 days on average, with Breckland (144), Mole Valley (147) and Bromsgrove (149) also amongst the quickest moving markets.

Ceredigion has seen the biggest reduction in the average time to sell, with homes selling -235 days faster over the last six months, with Breckland (-209) and East Lindsey (-202) also seeing some of the biggest falls.

South Lakeland is the slowest pocket of the property market with the average home taking 582 days to sell in current market conditions. It has also seen one of the largest increases in the last six months, up by 205 days, second only to Denbighshire where the average sale is taking 205 days longer.

Founder and chief executive officer of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: “What we essentially witnessed throughout much of the pandemic was the perfect storm of factors to delay the sale of homes across the UK. An initial industry lockdown followed by working from home restrictions, furlough and redundancies, meant that the property sector was very much on the back foot from the off.”

“This wasn’t made any easier due to numerous and ever changing Covid workplace protocols and then the introduction of the stamp duty holiday led to an overwhelming level of buyer activity hitting the sector like a ton of bricks.”

Short concluded: “When you factor in the archaic legal process that hampers transactions at the best of times, the outcome was only ever going to be a considerable build up in sales waiting to complete and huge delays to the time it takes to sell.”