A new and shocking survey of local authority search response times has revealed the huge postcode lottery faced by buyers and estate agents when trying to move property transactions along.

The survey, which has been completed by home-buying and exchange firm Spring using Propalt data, reveals an average waiting time of 11.5 days in England for councils to return property search results, which is higher than the 10 days set as the national minimum level of service for councils this year.

But this average masks vast differences in performance ranging from less than a day within some boroughs to 65 days within Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council and Canterbury City Council, which have been called out at the worse two in the country.

Tamworth Borough Council and Islington London Borough Council are equally shocking in their property search response times, albeit relatively quicker at 40 days.

“This presents a real headache for movers who just want to get on with it.”

The best councils include Forest Heath District Council, Salisbury District Council, St. Edmundsbury Borough Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and North Wiltshire District Council.

Slow conveyancing

But Spring is keen to point out that property search response times are not wholly responsible for slow conveyancing processes, highlighting how the average conveyancing caseload per firm has increased by 79% over the past decade, while there was a 13% fall in the number of solicitors working in residential conveyancing from September 2021 to October 2023.

“There is a vast discrepancy in local authority search times across the country which can be driven by various factors including property demand, staffing and resource levels in each area,” says Cormac Henderson, co-founder and executive chairman at Spring.

“This presents a real headache for movers who just want to get on with it.”

Read more about local authority search times.