Buyer interest remains steady. Despite higher-than-ideal mortgage rates and property price increases, home searches are up 7% year-on-year. Richard Donnell, the executive director at Zoopla, described buyer demand as the ‘strongest for a year’, adding that the UK property market ‘is still a buyers market as there are plenty of homes for sale.’
Yet a significant problem many prospective homebuyers are confronting is the excessively long property transaction times. Not only does it put the sale at risk of further delays and costs, but it has also deterred several prospective homebuyers from taking the next steps in acquiring property. The reason is that the homebuying process has become more burdensome and stressful than it needs to be.
Longer Transaction Times
In practice, the property transaction process is 60% longer than it was in 2007. More alarmingly, even with technological and digital advances, transaction completion times have increased by 36 days between 2019 and 2026.
More than six in ten properties, according to Twenty EA, are taking longer than the conventional six-month validity period for property searches. This has created problems as most property searches are only valid for six months. Lenders will typically not release mortgage funds after they expire unless they are refreshed or a suitable search indemnity insurance is set up.
TwentyEA highlighted that 60.8% of transactions reaching exchange in 2026 have taken over 6 months from the moment the estate agent was instructed. From the listing to the exchange, the average home purchase has now increased from 5.5 months in 2019 to 7 months in 2026.
Part of the increase is attributed to the period after the sale has been agreed. Between 2019 and 2026, the average time from listing to sale agreed has remained 2.5 months, but the period from sale agreed to exchange has moved from 3 months to 4.5 months. Consequently, TwentyEA has noted that the longer transaction times have a higher likelihood of property sales falling through.
Supply was up 2.4% year-on-year to 1,109,403 properties, but sales subject to contract fell 5.1% to 736,108. This has reverberated throughout the property market, with year-on-year sales declining for flats by 9.1%, semi-detached homes by 4.6%, and detached properties by 4.3%.
Santander has identified that the transaction fall-throughs cost the economy approximately £1.5 billion annually. Rightmove noted that nearly a quarter of agreed sales initially fall through; around 6% fall through completely and do not re-enter the market within a year.
Property Transaction Reform
The current property transaction situation has had a disruptive impact on the UK property market. Johan Svanstrom, the CEO of Rightmove, said: ‘A healthy housing market depends on people being able to move home easily and with certainty. However, the entire home-moving process currently takes more than seven months on average, making this the longest summer wait on record.’
‘Delays within the conveyancing journey’, Brad Fordham, the head of mortgage distribution and underwriting at NatWest Group, observed, ‘cause emotional distress and real financial costs for our customers.’
These issues have prompted calls for the Government to consider reforming the property transaction process. One initiative is Project 28, a group launched in September 2025 consisting of estate agents, brokers, lenders, and data providers calling for the property transaction timescale to be reduced to 28 days from the sale subject to contract to exchange.
Several proposals were put forward to achieve a consistent 28-day transaction turnaround time, including early instructions of seller-side conveyancer, provision of relevant upfront information and condition reports, and launching a secure data repository for all parties to access essential documents. Underpinning these proposals is to reduce delays and surprises while capitalising on technology to accelerate the property transaction timescale.
These proposals have contributed towards the Government’s ongoing homebuying and selling reform initiative, the purpose of which is to make transactions clearer, faster, and more reliable. Identifying that the current model is riddled with shortcomings contributing to longer waiting times, the Government is currently working on ways to improve the process. This includes launching digitalisation overhauls, streamlining aspects of the transaction process, imposing harsher penalties for failing to comply with binding contracts, and enforcing greater operational standards for property agents.
Transaction Considerations
The homebuying and selling reform is still in the consultation stage. It is unlikely that the systemic property transaction issues will be addressed quickly, even though it is positive news that the Government intends to work on implementing measures to improve the transaction system.
Nevertheless, it is crucial for prospective buyers to factor in the additional costs and time involved when planning to acquire property. Being informed will help manage expectations and enable one to better navigate the property transaction process.
