Surge in property supply sees time to exchange fall to 115 days
New figure is the lowest point it has been since July 2021 and shows a promising downward trend but still far off pre-pandemic levels.
New research from TwentyEA has found that the average ‘time to exchange’ dropped to 115 days in June 2023.
Time to exchange, which TwentyEA calculates as the difference in days between the last sales agreed date and the exchanged date, has remained consistently high since August 2021.
PEAKED
It peaked at 141 days/4.6 months in January 2022. But since February this year TwentyEA says the length of time has fallen from 136 days in February; 127 days in March 2023; 123 days in April 2023 and 122 days in May 2023.
The figure of 115 days in June is the lowest point it has been since July 2021 and shows a promising downward trend.
In the last year alone, the length of ‘time to exchange’ has fallen by over 17 days.
TwentyEA, powered by TwentyCI, says that as property supply has increased buyers now have more choice – a key driver for falling ‘time to exchange’ rates.
GREATER SUPPLY
When you have a greater supply of properties, those at the ‘Sold Subject to Contract’ stage can find a new property faster instead of waiting for something suitable to come onto the market.
Indeed, TwentyEA’s research found that the number of mid to high-priced houses coming onto the market has increased significantly.
Before we get too excited ‘time to exchange’ has a long way to fall.”
Stuart Ducker, Strategic Solutions Director of TwentyCi, says: “Before we get too excited that ‘time to exchange’ has fallen in the last year by 17 days to 115 days in June 2023 we should consider that ‘time to exchange’ has a long way to fall yet to match anything like the normal (pre-pandemic) year.
“In June 2019 for example, the average ‘time to exchange’ in the UK was just 92 days.”
Stuart, I agree it is not time to get excited. What we seem to lack as an industry is how long do buyers, sellers, lenders, surveyors and legal representatives think it should take. I would have thought that a realistic target for exchange of contracts should be 14 days from the date the sale is agreed. 115 is a long way from that!!