"Prospective buyers face little competition, so can be very selective about the properties they wish to offer on and take their time making those offers."
- Shane Miller - Spring
Homes in Sutton, Harpenden and Harborne are amongst the slowest in the UK to sell from date of listing to completion, according to the latest research from property data platform, MoveSmart created by national home buying service, Spring.
From the day of listing to completion, the average home in Sutton took 174 days to sell, while in Harpenden the average time was 161 days. The average home in Harborne took 154 days to sell, according to a new report, which reveals the top 10 fastest and slowest-selling areas in England, Scotland and Wales.
In comparison, from listing to sold subject to contract, the average home in Sutton took 53 days, while in Harpenden the average time was 52 days. The average home in Harborne took 67 days from listing to SSTC.
In Sutton, the average home took 23% more time from listing to SSTC than the average home in Bradford, the fastest area for the average home from listing to SSTC.
The fastest areas from listing to completion include Cleethorpes (70 days), Hammersmith and Fulham (73 days) and Bradford (80 days). From listing to SSTC, the average home in Cleethorpes took 63 days, while in Hammersmith and Fulham, the average time was 56 days. In Bradford, the average home took 42 days from listing to SSTC.
Additional research from PropAlt revealed that in 2023 so far, there have been 940,000 property listings with seasonally adjusted transactions of around 720,000 transactions and 187,688 transactions falling through before they completed.
Further analysis also revealed that during 2022, almost 1.2 million transactions were carried out and around 24% of transactions fell through during the same period. In addition, during 2021 around 1.4 million transactions were carried out with around 20% of transactions falling through before they completed.
Shane Miller, co-founder and co-CEO at Spring, comments: “The increase in sales times is a reflection of the fact we have shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. Prospective buyers face little competition, so can be very selective about the properties they wish to offer and take their time making those offers.
“Our research has also discovered that sales are slowing down more in areas where average house prices are generally higher. This is happening because the amount of disposable income buyers can afford to spend on mortgage payments has likely stayed the same, or even fallen slightly with the cost of living increase, while rising interest rates mean the maximum amount they can borrow for that monthly payment has fallen.
"At the same time, the average rent has increased, so people still want to buy, but if they were previously considering purchasing a home for £400,000, they may now be looking around the £300,000 mark instead. This means more effective demand for cheaper properties and less demand for more expensive ones.”
