Buying a home remains one of life’s most stressful events, with the process ranked as more stressful than Covid, Brexit, divorce, redundancy, school exams and driving tests according to a recent a survey.

A total of 85% of homebuyers said they experienced some degree of stress when moving home, with 27% describing the process as “very stressful”.  A quarter of those surveyed said the degree of stress involved either exacerbated an existing mental health issue or caused their mental health to deteriorate. 

The survey, by platform Stipendium, aimed to look at what was causing these problems for homebuyers. It found that the lack of certainty around when their purchase would complete was most frequently cited as the main cause of stress when buying a home. 

The second most stressful aspect was the total time it takes to buy a home in the UK, while the fact that a transaction can collapse at any point until the sale has completed was the next biggest worry.  

Being left in the dark by the industry professionals facilitating a purchase also caused a good deal of stress, as did being unable to contact them to get an update.

Other factors to make the list include the hidden costs of purchasing, the negotiation process when submitting an offer, and the sheer size of the financial commitment undertaken when committing to a mortgage. 

Stipendium chief executive Christina Melling says: “We’ve lived through some pretty stressful events in recent years whether it be the political uncertainty caused by Brexit, or the unprecedented events of the pandemic. However from research we know that the process of purchasing a property remains the most stressful experience.

“Despite the UK boasting one of the best performing property markets on a global level, the process we have to endure also remains out of date, uncertain and takes an extremely long time. 

“It’s quite extraordinary that in this day and age, buyers still struggle to get a concrete completion date, suffer due to transactions falling through, can’t contact their estate agent or solicitor and also fall foul of the hidden cost involved. 

“It’s not just the sale itself that can suffer due to these poor industry practices, it also impacts the mental health for many who find themselves on the receiving end.”

She says while reform of the property buying process did not look likely soon, these issues were behind the design and launch of the company’s Merge platform, designed to give homebuyers a full view of the process.