Ongoing vendor over-optimism on asking prices means properties are taking longer to find a buyer in every UK region, reckons data analyst TwentyEA.

According to the firm’s latest analysis it takes an average of 72 days from a new instruction to SSTC- an increase of 31%. Inner London is the slowest region at 86 days and Scotland is the quickest at 48 days.

Instruction to completion times on the other hand have fallen by an average of 7% to 114 days while at the same time the number of agreed sales was 16% higher than last year.

Katy Billany, Executive Director of TwentyEA said: “Despite a strong rise in demand which began at the beginning of 2024, it’s now taking longer to find a buyer than this time last year.

“This suggests many sellers are still overly optimistic on price and we’re seeing further indications of this from the high number of price changes. Last month, these peaked at 93,968 – the highest monthly figure seen at any time between January 2019 to date.

Overall, the property market is looking buoyant with the number of agreed sales 16% higher so far this year compared to 2023.”

“Overall, the property market is looking buoyant with the number of agreed sales 16% higher so far this year compared to 2023. New instructions are also up 10% and it’s very pleasing to see that the time to complete from SSTC has fallen marginally over the last year.

“We can see this reduction across each region and while there will be many nuances at play, one likely reason behind this is a more stable mortgage landscape.”

TwentyEA specialises in providing data to property market professionals. Its latest report comes a day after OnTheMarket launched a new SSTC index, revealing the cities where homes are achieving SSTC the fastest.