According to Smoove’s home movers report, within the last six months the average time taken to complete the home buying process is 153 days.
In 2019, the average time was 124 days.
Smoove said that the increase was most likely due to the result of the post-lockdown boom.
The stamp duty holiday, increased demand, greater workloads for solicitors and local authority searches taking longer due to technology issues or large backlogs all impacted the homebuying process.
The firm said the home moving process was still a “protracted, fragmented and analogue experience” as many of the checks and documents needed to be physical rather than signed or reviewed digitally.
The majority of homeowners, nine in 10, said the process was stressful with 40 per cent pointing to the length of time to complete the process as a key issue.
Over a third, 34 per cent, said that lack of certainty was a problem, and for a further third of buyers waiting for exchange and completion dates to be finalised was an issue.
Smoove’s research showed that the documents that take the longest to complete included the mortgage application and agreement in principle (22 per cent).
This was followed by ID checks at 18 per cent and local authority property searches at 16 per cent.
Data from the Conveyancing Data Services (CDS) shows the average time length of time to received personal searches form local councils in England and Wales was between nine and 11 days in August.
‘The length of time is…a major stress driver’
Simon McCulloch, Smoove’s chief commercial and growth officer, said: “Too often we hear of the misery that comes with moving home. The sheer length of time it takes to complete the process is a major stress driver.
“Local property searches being delayed only adds to the pressure and these significantly vary region by region with some search times taking up to 70 days. For this reason, we recommend ordering your searches as soon as possible.”
He added that a way to reduce time and stress was to use a platform or conveyancer that offers services like electronic onboarding, ID verification and case tracking.
McCulloch continued: “We need to modernise the industry and systematically transform the home moving experience by increasingly digitising and automating the process. Whether that means providing transactional visibility, quicker checks, automatic form filling, or real-time updates, these will all ultimately ensure a more satisfactory outcome for everyone.”
