Why homemovers need to tighten their trainers

Following the dramatic 30% fall in the number of sales agreed in the aftermath of last year’s mini-budget, when mortgage rates soared, there were concerns that double-figure inflation and the cost-of-living crisis would put a permanent dampener on the property market. But those fears look to be mistaken with latest figures from the property portal Rightmove showing that the number of sales agreed is on the rebound and just 11% down on 2019.

But while markets may be calmer, it is a ‘new normal’ with a much-extended timeframe from putting a property on the market to completing the paper process and moving home. The time taken to achieve a sale has risen by 50% to 65 days compared to a year ago, with the time to property exchange up 5% to 139 days, according to property data specialists TwentyEA.

The slowdown is due to a number of factors. The market has had to contend with a massive backlog that arose during the pandemic, while also experiencing a surge due to the stamp duty holiday that reduced the cost of moving during 2020 to 2022. According to Rightmove, there were 44% more homes sold subject to contract in June 2022 than in 2019.

The huge volumes are putting a strain not just on conveyancing departments, where pressures are compounded by many different firms likely to be involved in any individual property chain, but also those involved in the many connecting strands of sale and purchase. They include the Land Registry – which is the government department responsible for registering property transactions – local authority departments, and lenders.

Whenever a property is sold the buyer will have a ‘local search’ carried out to check there are no planning restrictions that could have an impact on the future property value, and record numbers of search requests have put extra demands on the process. Many local authorities are taking as much as a month to handle these requests.

Similarly, mortgage lenders are under pressure, with the time taken to secure a formal offer typically taking up to six weeks.