UK home sale times are ‘embarrassing’

The UK timeframe for selling a property has been branded as “embarrassing.”

New research shows the UK ranks as the slowest country for selling a home.

Upfront information provider Home Sale Pack analysed the average time it takes to sell a home in 10 of the world’s busiest housing markets.

The data shows that the nation with the fastest selling process is the USA where it takes an average of just 69 days to complete a transaction from the time of listing through to closing.

In Canada, the average property takes just 90 days to make it through to the closing stage, while in France the journey takes 105 days.

Germany (106 days) and the UAE (107 days) sit middle of the table, where it takes 3.5 months to complete a transaction, followed by Portugal (122 days), Italy (137 days) and Australia (137 days).

The UK struggles to match the home selling efficiency of other nations, with an average timeline of 183 days or 6 months.

This means that selling a home in the UK takes almost three-times longer than it does in the USA, and an entire month longer than the second-worst performer, Spain.

Ruth Beeton, co-founder of Home Sale Pack, said: “The UK boasts one of the strongest and most desirable property markets on the global stage, but despite our obsession with bricks and mortar, our protracted property transaction timeline is quite frankly embarrassing.

“Of course, markets differ and each nation will have its own unique nuances with regard to selling a property, as well as varying definitions of when in the timeline a property is actually sold. But despite this, it’s clear that the UK is miles behind the rest when it comes to speed and efficiency.

“The problem is clear - the UK’s process is simply archaic and has failed to evolve for decades, perhaps centuries. One of the key failings is the proper provision of upfront information which not only helps increase speed, but also certainty.

“We’re working hard to normalise the process of sellers providing all prospective buyers with the vital information they need to make a decision right at the beginning of the process, because this alone will slash weeks and even months off our embarrassing transaction timeline.”