How Long Does It Take to Sell a House?

How Long Does it Take to Sell a House?

In Summary…
Based on data collected from PropertyData, homes in the Hampshire areas sampled take between roughly 5½ and 7 months to sell, depending on the area. Elsewhere in the UK, the city figures range from about 3 months in Edinburgh to over 14 months in Cardiff and Bristol. That’s before the legal work and completion, which can add several more months. The asking price, local demand and how prepared you are can all make a difference.

Selling a house can be a waiting game. You can spend weeks getting your property ready, arranging viewings and hoping for an offer, only to find that once you’ve found a buyer, the legal process is being held up and could take months. When you’re trying to plan your next move, whether that’s buying another home, relocating for work or simply knowing when you’ll have the money from your sale, not knowing how long it will all take can be frustrating.

It’s little wonder that moving home is often considered one of life’s most stressful experiences, as explored in research by Legal & General. Selling a property comes with its own uncertainties, from attracting the right buyer to navigating surveys, mortgage approvals and legal paperwork.

So, how long does it actually take to sell a house? There’s no single answer. The time it takes to find a buyer can vary considerably depending on your asking price, the condition of your property and demand in your local area. After an offer is accepted, you’ll also need to allow time for conveyancing, searches and the other steps required to complete the sale.

Understanding these stages can help you set realistic expectations and identify where delays might occur. Here’s what the process involves, how long selling a house can take and what you can do to help keep things moving.

What’s Involved in Selling a House

Selling a house involves more than putting it online, accepting an offer and handing over the keys. Before the sale can be completed, you’ll need to prepare your property, arrange its marketing, negotiate with potential buyers and work through the legal process. Each stage takes time, and delays at any point can affect when you finally move.

Preparation and valuation

Before your property goes on the market, you’ll need to decide on an asking price and prepare your home for potential viewings. A valuation from a local estate agent can help you establish a realistic price based on the property’s condition, location and comparable homes in the area.

You’ll also need a valid Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) before marketing your property for sale, unless a relevant exemption applies. An EPC provides information about the property’s energy efficiency and is generally valid for 10 years, provided a newer certificate hasn’t been issued.

It’s worth gathering your property paperwork at this stage, too. This can include planning permissions, building regulations certificates, guarantees for completed work and relevant title information. Having these documents ready can help prevent avoidable delays once a buyer makes an offer.

Marketing and listing

Once your property is ready, your estate agent will arrange photography, prepare the listing and advertise it to potential buyers, typically through property portals and their own marketing channels. The aim is to present your home accurately and attract buyers whose budgets and requirements match what you’re selling.

How long this stage takes depends largely on demand in your local area, the price you’re asking and the number of similar properties competing for attention. A well-priced home in an area with plenty of active buyers may attract viewings and offers relatively quickly. Where demand is weaker, or buyers consider the asking price too high, it can take longer to generate interest.

Viewings are an important part of this process, as they give potential buyers the opportunity to assess the property in person. Feedback from viewers can help you and your estate agent decide whether the marketing or asking price needs to be adjusted.

Offers and negotiating

When an offer comes in, the highest figure isn’t necessarily the best option. You’ll also want to consider the buyer’s financial position, their readiness to proceed and whether their purchase depends on selling another property.

For example, a buyer who has already sold their home, arranged their finances and has no property chain may be in a stronger position to proceed than someone whose own sale is still uncertain. A mortgage agreement in principle can provide an indication that a lender may be willing to lend, although it doesn’t guarantee final mortgage approval.

Your estate agent can help you compare offers, negotiate on price and establish the buyer’s position before you decide whether to accept. Once an offer is agreed, the sale can move towards conveyancing, although an accepted offer doesn’t guarantee that the transaction will complete.

Conveyancing and legal work

Once an offer has been accepted, the legal process begins. Your solicitor or conveyancer will deal with the contract, review the property’s legal details, arrange the necessary searches and respond to enquiries from the buyer’s legal representative.

The buyer will usually arrange a survey and progress their mortgage application during this period. If the survey reveals problems, documents are missing, or legal enquiries take time to resolve, the parties may need to investigate issues or renegotiate before proceeding.

This stage can be difficult to predict, particularly if either party is involved in a property chain. Everyone in the chain needs to be ready to proceed before the linked transactions can usually complete, so a delay elsewhere can affect your moving date.

Completion and moving

Once the legal work is complete and contracts have been exchanged, the parties agree a completion date. On completion day, the remaining purchase money is transferred through the solicitors, ownership passes to the buyer, and the keys can be handed over.

The time between accepting an offer and completing the sale varies according to the complexity of the transaction, the mortgage arrangements and whether a property chain is involved. That’s why it’s important to distinguish between the time it takes to find a buyer and the time it takes to complete the entire sale.

Your estate agent and solicitor can help you keep track of progress, identify outstanding tasks and respond to requests promptly. Preparing your paperwork and choosing a realistic asking price from the outset can also help reduce avoidable delays.

How Can I Prepare to Sell My Property?

A little preparation before your property goes on the market can save time later. It can also help buyers feel confident about what they’re viewing.

Get your paperwork together

Having the relevant documents ready means you’re less likely to be scrambling for them after an offer has been accepted.

Energy Performance Certificate (EPC): Check that you have a valid certificate. An EPC is generally valid for 10 years unless a new one is issued.

Certificates and guarantees: Gather any building regulation certificates, planning permissions for extensions, FENSA certificates for replacement windows and guarantees for work such as roofing or damp treatment, where applicable.

Title information: Your solicitor can help establish what title documents are available and whether anything needs to be resolved.

Property information: Make a note of relevant work carried out on the property, along with any guarantees, warranties or paperwork that a buyer may need.

Fix minor defects and give everything a clean

You don’t necessarily need to carry out major renovations before selling. Small jobs can make a difference, though, particularly if they help buyers see that the property has been looked after.

Fix dripping taps, squeaky doors, loose handles and cracked tiles. Touch up scuffed paintwork where needed, clean kitchen appliances and bathroom fittings, and make sure rooms feel fresh and well cared for.

If you’re considering a bigger project, speak to your estate agent first. Not every improvement will add enough value to justify the cost.

Declutter and depersonalise

You want buyers to picture themselves living in your home, especially when you’re staging an open house.

Clear away excess items from kitchen worktops, bathroom surfaces and hallways. Put away anything that makes rooms feel crowded, and consider moving bulky furniture if it makes a space difficult to navigate.

You don’t need to strip your home of all personality. Just make sure buyers can appreciate the space and see how they might use it.

How long does it take to sell my property?

The honest answer is it depends a lot on where you are. Homes in Chandler’s Ford (SO53) are on the market for around 169 days, so just over 5½ months. In Eastleigh town it’s about 203 days (6½ months), and across the wider SO50 postcode it’s 217 days, a touch over 7 months. The months of inventory figures back this up. At the current rate of sales, it would take between 5.6 and 7.1 months to clear the homes currently listed in these areas.

Head to other UK cities and the gap gets much wider:

• Edinburgh: 89 days (about 3 months)
• Newcastle: 127 days (just over 4 months)
• Leeds: 380 days (around 12½ months)
• Cardiff and Bristol: 435 days (about 14 months)

A few of the other cities show figures of over 1,000 days. Those come from very small numbers of listings or sales, so we wouldn’t read them as realistic timescales.

So all in all, expect a property in the Hampshire areas we sampled to spend around 5½ to 7 months on the market. Across the more reliable city results, it’s anywhere from roughly 3 months to just over 14. Once you’ve accepted an offer, conveyancing and completion can add several more months on top.

What Can Speed Up Selling a House

You can’t control every part of a property transaction, but you can make it easier for the right buyer to proceed.

Be realistic about your asking price: An asking price that reflects the local market is more likely to attract serious interest. Overpricing can mean fewer viewings and a longer wait for an acceptable offer.

Consider the buyer’s position: First-time buyers, renters and buyers who have already sold their property may have fewer links in the chain. Their finances and circumstances still need checking, but a chain-free buyer can mean fewer dependencies.

Get your mortgage agreement in principle sorted: If you’re selling to purchase another property, having your finances organised can help you move quickly when the right home comes along.

Instruct a solicitor early: Finding a conveyancer before you accept an offer means you can get the initial checks and paperwork underway sooner.

Respond promptly: Return forms, provide documents and answer questions as soon as you can. Your estate agent and solicitor should keep you informed about what is needed and where things stand.

Keep communication open: Regular updates between everyone involved can help identify delays before they become bigger problems. None of these steps can guarantee a quick sale, but being prepared can remove some avoidable hold-ups.

What Can Slow Down Selling a House

Even when a buyer is found, a sale can take longer than expected. Some of the most common reasons include:

Long property chains: If your buyer needs to sell their own home, and the person they’re buying from is doing the same, several transactions need to progress together. A delay anywhere in the chain can affect everyone else.

Anti-money laundering and source-of-funds checks: Solicitors and other professionals need to verify identities and check where funds have come from. If documents are missing or information takes time to confirm, the process can stall.

Survey and valuation surprises: A survey may uncover issues that need further investigation, repairs or renegotiation. A mortgage valuation may also affect how much a lender is prepared to offer. These issues don’t always stop a sale, but they can add time.

Slow searches and outstanding paperwork: Local authority searches, missing certificates, unclear boundaries or unanswered legal enquiries can all delay progress. Having your paperwork ready from the start can help avoid some of these problems.

A change of circumstances: Buyers can change their minds, mortgage offers can be delayed, and transactions can fall through. If a sale collapses, you may need to find another buyer and begin parts of the process again.

One factor that can influence the time it takes to find a buyer is location. Demand, the number of competing properties and the type of home you’re selling can all make a difference.

The Difference an Area Can Make When Selling a Home

Location plays a big part in how long it takes to sell a property. Demand, the number of homes competing for buyers and the type of property available can all affect how quickly a sale happens.

The PropertyData figures below show how the picture varies across Hampshire and further afield.

In this snapshot, Chandler’s Ford has the lowest estimated time on the market at 169 days, while Winchester has the highest at 380 days. The figures suggest that sellers can face quite different conditions depending on where their property is.

Source for both tables: PropertyData. Figures reflect the data collected and should be checked for currency before publication.

The city figures also show why the data needs context. Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle have relatively low estimates in this sample, while several other results are flagged as unreliable because of very small numbers of listings or sales. Those figures shouldn’t be treated as definitive city-wide averages.

For sellers, the useful takeaway is that the local market matters. Understanding how many similar properties are available and how quickly they’re selling can help you set a realistic asking price and plan your next move.

Of course, market averages play a part in the interest your property gets, but so does the property’s condition, presentation and asking price. That’s where advice from an agent who knows the local area can help.

With that in mind, it’s also worth considering when you put your property on the market.

When’s the Best Time to Sell a House?

What is the best time to sell a house? Spring has longer days and brighter gardens can help a home show well, and many buyers are hoping to move during the warmer months. Rightmove’s research has also highlighted February and March as strong months to list, based on the proportion of properties listed that went on to complete.

Autumn can be another useful window, as buyers return from summer holidays and start making plans before the end of the year. Activity can become quieter in the run-up to Christmas, although serious buyers still search throughout the year.

There’s no single best time for every property, though. The right moment depends on local demand, the amount of competing stock, your circumstances and how ready your home is to go on the market.

Waiting for the perfect month isn’t always the best move. If you’re ready to sell and your asking price reflects the market, you may be better placed to get started than to wait for a particular season.

So, How Long Does It Take to Sell a House?

Allow a few months, and build in some breathing room. Finding a buyer can take a couple of months or longer, and the legal process after an offer is accepted can add several more. Chains, surveys and paperwork can all affect the final moving date.

The best way to give your sale a good start is to prepare your property, price it sensibly and work with an estate agent who knows your local market and keeps the process moving.

Thinking about selling? Book a valuation with Rowe & Co to discuss your property, the current market and what a realistic timescale could look like.