There is a raft of new data outlining the tight timescales for clients who are starting their purchase or sale journey now and who may wish to complete before the end of March next year.
Trussle is the latest organisation to provide figures, which show it is taking 115 days (16 to 17 weeks, or four months) to complete a home purchase.
At the time of writing it is mid-November; 115 days will take us pretty close to 31 March and the end of the stamp duty holiday. Trussle suggests buyers would need to make a mortgage application by 6 December to complete within the average timescale and beat the deadline.
Some may complete their purchase in a shorter time; but for others this looming cut-off point begins to look less achievable, and it’s perhaps no wonder the industry is asking for a stamp duty extension.
There are many working parts within the house purchase process, and Covid-19 has introduced a far greater element of uncertainty, so ‘normal’ timescales do not really apply.
Advisers (and their clients) will need to think seriously about the potential bottlenecks. For example, the time taken to receive searches may be a concern, and in this context the earlier they can be ordered the better.
Local authorities have vastly different turnaround times and may be subject to some unusual reasons for this. Take Hackney Council, which was recently targeted by fraudsters with a cyber hack that impacted its systems greatly – it’s now been suggested that Hackney is taking 55 days to return regulated searches.
That’s nigh on eight weeks, which even if they are ordered now takes you well past Christmas. Add in the Christmas break and you could be looking at mid-January, so it’s clear that the clock continues to tick and that, for some buyers, the timings are not going to be achievable.
At some point there will be a reality check for many potential purchasers, but others may believe that four and a half months to complete a purchase is plenty of time.
The irony is, of course, that it should be. And it could be still if we can get our priorities right, and if there’s a commitment to getting as much information as possible ready up front, instructing the conveyancer asap, sorting out the mortgage finance immediately, and instigating other parts of the process that can be set in motion quickly.
Mark Snape is managing director of Broker Conveyancing
