How long does it take to buy a home in the UK?

Estimates of how long it takes to buy a home in the UK vary widely. A general consensus seems to exist around three-to-six months which relegates a needlessly excessive percentage of the country’s housing stock to a state of occupier purgatory. According to Siran Seevaratnam from Osborne Clarke, some of the primary causes of this delay are marketing, loan applications, contract negotiations, surveys and other factors. Added to the homebuying timeline are, of course, any challenges emerging from the negotiation, finance application or contract of sale processes. This is before any complexities emerging from the buyer and/or seller being part of a “chain”. Since completion of a sale can be achieved without titles formally being registered, Seevaratnam does not consider the HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) backlog as a significant factor in homebuying delays, however it could affect the perception of some buyers if the home is resold before registration of title is completed. On 26 May 2023, HMLR reported that although 33.9 percent of changes to existing registered titles are automated and processed within a day, 37.3 percent take longer than a month and that “in some instances these applications are taking around 6 months to complete”. Errors in an application, or a complex change or new entry can take upwards of a year.