What is causing the market to be so slow?
The UK has the slowest home-moving timeline among 12 countries, according to a market analysis by digital property pack provider Moverly.
Its analysis examined the average time it takes to sell a home in 12 countries frequently chosen by UK citizens for emigration. The findings reveal significant disparities in home-selling timelines.
On average, it takes 110 days for a property to go from its initial listing to completion across the 12 nations studied. The United States leads with the fastest process, averaging just 53 days from listing to closing.
In contrast, the UK lags significantly, with an average of 179 days or almost six months to complete a sale. This figure is 70% longer than the process in the US, equating to a difference of 126 days.
Other nations with relatively quick home-selling processes include the UAE (70 days), New Zealand (72 days), Canada (90 days), and Australia (95 days). Countries with timelines approaching the UK’s include Italy, Spain, Portugal and Singapore, each averaging 152 days, Germany (137 days), and France (105 days).
Gemma Young (pictured), chief executive of Moverly, attributes the UK’s sluggish process to various systemic issues. She notes that the UK’s unique selling process involves numerous obstacles that have been streamlined in other countries.
Key issues include outdated conveyancing practices and extended windows during which buyers and sellers can change their minds and withdraw from transactions.
“It seems you have to move halfway around the world to access a decent home-selling process,” Young said. “The Americans are showing the rest of the world up while the UK is making everyone else look very good. That’s not to say the US model is better, but it’s certainly much faster, and we should be doing everything we can to speed up what has become a painfully sluggish journey here in the UK.”
Young highlighted that outdated conveyancing practices are a major cause of delays. She pointed out that modernising and digitising these processes could reduce the time to sell by up to 70%, potentially enabling the UK to match the speed of the US market.
“As more agents and conveyancers adopt the tech solutions now widely available to them, we expect the UK’s performance to see radical improvement in a short period of time,” she added.
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