Slowest – and fastest – sale completion times in the UK revealed

Homes in Birmingham city centre and the city’s Summerfield Park area along with Clapton in London are among the slowest in the UK to sell from date of listing to completion, latest research from Spring’s data platfrom MoveSmart reveals.

From the day of listing, the average home in Birmingham City centre took 48 weeks to completion, while in Summerfield Park in Birmingham, the average time was 35 weeks to completion.

Elsewhere the average home in Clapton, East London took 40 weeks from the day of listing to completion.

But it’s not just major cities suffering from a logjam. The average home in Doncaster, Portsmouth and Sheffield all took an average of 40 weeks to reach completion.

FASTEST

Even in the fastest locations, time from listing to completion is between three to four months.

The fastest areas include Formby in Liverpool at 15 weeks and Dinckley in Blackburn and Swanage in Bournemouth both at 16 weeks.

Cormac Henderson, Chief Executive of Spring, says: “Historically, sales in major cities like Birmingham and London have been reasonably fast to transact.

“However, with less and less people wanting to live in dense urban areas due to new lifestyle choices, ongoing demand for flexible working and greater demand for outside space, it isn’t surprising to see the slowdown.

“We must also remember that conveyancing demand in these areas is likely to be more concentrated, which will play a part in the overall completion time.”

COMPARISON

Meanwhile data from comparison site GetAgent.co.uk reveals on average, there are as many as 66 estate agency branches in every UK postcode.

The Capital accounts for the top 45 postcode areas when it comes to the most estate agent branches registered within a single postcode.

Outside of the capital, the SL1 postcode of Slough in Buckinghamshire sits top when it comes to estate agent competition, with 224 branches registered in the area.

The bricks and mortar estate agent branch is alive and well.”

Brighton’s BN2 follows with 217 registered branches, with Ascot and Maidenhead’s SL6, (203), Oadby’s LE2 in Leicester (199) and BN1 in Brighton (199) completing the top five.

Mal McCallion, GetAgent.co.uk Chief Operating Officer, says: “The bricks and mortar estate agent branch is alive and well, despite many and frequent false prophecies that the rise of the online agent would bring about its extinction.