"Despite a cooling housing market in which expensive mortgages and a high cost of living are denting buyer demand levels, the overall time it takes to sell has actually reduced"
- Colby Short - GetAgent
Market analysis by estate agent comparison site, GetAgent.co.uk, reveals that despite a cooling housing market, the time it takes to sell a home in England & Wales has fallen by over a week in the past six months.
GetAgent monitors the time it takes to sell a home in every region of England & Wales, from the point a property is first listed on the market, all the way through to the sale being registered as complete with the Land Registry.
Their latest research looks at the average time it has taken to sell a home over the last 6 months (January 2023 to June 2023 - latest available) and how this compares to the previous 6 months (July 2022 to December 2022).
The latest figures show that over the last six months, the average home has taken 218.9 days to sell across England and Wales. Despite a cooling market, this is actually -8.1 days, or -3.6%, quicker than the average of 227 days seen across the 6 months prior, suggesting that market conditions have started to improve following last September’s shambolic mini-budget - at least where selling timelines are concerned.
Biggest reductions in selling time
The region to have seen the biggest reduction in time to sell over is London. It currently takes an average of 313.2 days to sell in the capital, marking a reduction of -31.6 days, or -9.2% versus the 6 months previous when it took an average of 344.8 days.
In the North East, the time to sell has fallen by -18.1 days (-6.9%) and currently sits at 242.7, while the South East and West Midlands have seen the average selling time drop by -10.4 days and -1.4 days respectively.
Biggest increases in selling time
All other regions of England & Wales have seen the average time to sell increase over the past 6 months.
Nowhere has it climbed more than in the South West where an increase of 10.5 days (4.8%) means it now takes an average of 229.7 days to sell a home.
Wales has seen selling time increase by 9.2 days (4.3%) to now sit at 223.4 days, and the time to sell in Yorkshire & Humber has climbed by 6.7 days (3%) to currently sit at 233.2 days.
The average time to sell has also increased in the East of England (5.1 days), North West (4.3 days), and East Midlands (2.5 days).
Co-founder and CEO of GetAgent.co.uk, Colby Short, commented: “Despite a cooling housing market in which expensive mortgages and a high cost of living are denting buyer demand levels, the overall time it takes to sell has actually reduced.
"Lower buyer demand usually means it takes longer to find a quality buyer, but at the same time, a quieter market means that the selling process, not least the convoluted conveyancing leg of the journey, can be completed more quickly because the professionals involved have got less on their plates.
"So while the real challenge in today’s market is finding a buyer in a stronger enough position to reach completion, those that can achieve this are finding that the road to completion is far smoother than it was during the peak of the pandemic boom period.”
