Market insight
The real cost of Britain’s seven-month wait to move house
What Rightmove’s longest-wait-on-record completion data actually means for agents.
It now takes 216 days on average to move house in Britain.
That breaks down as 62 days to find a buyer, followed by 154 days from agreed sale to completion, according to new analysis from Rightmove.
It is the longest wait at this point in the year since records began, and 36 days longer than in 2019. That is a 31% increase.
216 days
average time to move house in Britain.
154 days
from agreed sale to completion.
31%
longer than in 2019.
Where does the time go?
Most of the wait sits after the “sold” board goes up.
The 62-day search for a buyer is only a small fraction of the total. The other 154 days belong to conveyancers, lenders and everyone else in the chain.
Flats take longest
Flats take 169 days to complete, while houses take slightly less at 149 days.
Location matters
London sellers wait 174 days to complete once a sale is agreed, 33 days longer than sellers in the North East.
Scotland moves fastest
Scotland is fastest at 98 days from start to finish, largely due to its use of Home Reports and earlier upfront information.
The numbers point to a simple truth: the real delay starts after the buyer is found.
Why agents feel this first
Every month a completion drags on is another month an agent’s chain can still collapse, and another month of fee income sitting unpaid.
Rightmove’s own research puts the transaction fall-through rate at 23%, with 6% of sales collapsing for good and not returning to market within a year.
A long completion is not just frustrating. It is commercial risk.
The longer a sale takes to complete, the longer agents, sellers and chains stay exposed to uncertainty.
Sellers who instruct a conveyancer early, before a buyer has even been found, give themselves a head start.
The paperwork is ready to move the moment an offer is agreed, rather than starting from scratch afterwards.
£205bn
worth of property currently listed on Rightmove still has to clear this process once a buyer is found.
What would shorten it?
Government reform is on the table, and Rightmove says it backs faster information-sharing and more digitisation across the home-buying process.
That should help eventually, once it actually lands.
This does not argue against private treaty, which remains the right route for most sellers. But for some sellers, certainty matters more urgently.
Some sellers cannot carry a 216-day risk:
- A seller relocating for a job
- A seller managing a chain of their own
- A seller settling an estate
For those situations, a method of sale with a fixed timescale, such as Modern Auction or Secure Sale, gives that seller an option private treaty alone does not.
Agents who can offer both are not stuck explaining a seven-month wait to every seller who needs certainty sooner.
The data is blunt
Completions are not getting faster, and until reform actually lands, agents are the ones absorbing the wait.
For sellers who need more certainty, the question is not whether private treaty still has a place. It does. The question is whether agents can offer another route when time, certainty and fixed timescales matter more.
Want to talk about faster sale options?
Explore Modern Auction and Secure Sale with The Bid
If you would like to talk about using faster methods of sale such as Modern Auction and Secure Sale, The Bid team can help you look at the right option for your sellers.
Or call 0121 726 2000.
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