The UK is the slowest of the world’s dozen most developed countries for the time taken to complete the sale of a property from the moment it is first listed, with conveyancers largely blamed for the delays.

A comparison by proptech firm Moverly shows that it takes 179 days or almost six months on average for a home to go from listing to completion – see table below.

US far quicker

Whereas, in the US it is only 53 days for the transaction to be ‘closed’. So, in the UK the process is 70% slower than across the Atlantic.

The analysis reveals that across the 12 nations it takes an average 110 days.

Other nations to have fast selling processes include UAE (70 days), New Zealand (72 days), Canada (90 days), and Australia (95 days).

The nations where homeselling comes close to taking as long as it does in the UK are Italy (159 days), Spain, Portugal and Singapore (152 days).

It seems you have to move halfway around the world to access a decent home selling process.”

Gemma Young, CEO at Moverly (main picture), suggests that the issues with the UK process are the result of its unique idiosyncrasies causing bumps and obstacles that sellers and property professionals have to navigate throughout the selling journey, many of which other countries have managed to iron out over the years.

These include everything from archaic conveyancing practices to elongated windows in which buyers and sellers are legally allowed to change their minds and pull out of transactions.

Young says: “It seems you have to move halfway around the world to access a decent home selling process.

The Americans are showing the rest of the world up while the UK is making everyone else look very good!”

“The Americans are showing the rest of the world up while the UK is making everyone else look very good!”

She says conveyancers are “a definite culprit” when it comes to delaying the selling process, and this is because too many of the legal processes have remained unchanged for decades, if not longer.