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If you are thinking about moving home this year, and want to be settled in before Christmas, you may want to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.
Although Christmas is the last thing you want to think about coming into the summer months, new research suggests that home sellers need to be thinking about the big day in summer, if they want to have moved home in time for Christmas Day. This is because research now indicates they’ll have little more than a month to get their current property on the market if they want to have completed in time for Christmas.
The research shows that currently, the average time it takes to sell a home in the UK is 146 days. This is after extensive analysis of the current time it’s taking to sell a home across the UK in the current market, how this differs regionally and by what point sellers need to have entered the market, to have completed on their purchase, two weeks before Christmas comes.
When should you put your home on the market?
The deadline to put your home on the market to move home in time for Christmas is 18th July. Although this sounds very far in advance to be thinking about moving home in time for Christmas, if you want to be settled before Christmas day itself (assuming that you’ll want to move in at least two weeks before) this deadline will give you a desired moving date of 11th December.
How long does moving home take?
On an average, it takes 69 days between listing a property and accepting a buyer’s offer, followed by an average of 77 days to get to completion, totalling 146 days.
This means that sellers need to put their home on the market by 18th July in order to, 146 days later, move-in on 11th December.
Moving home in time for Christmas – regional differences
There are regional variations across the UK, meaning that if you live in certain regions, the deadline for listing is even sooner still.
Wales has the longest selling time of anywhere in the UK. Here, the average sale takes 167 due to it having the longest average listing time (80 days) and the longest time to completion (87 days). This means Welsh sellers need to put their house on the market by 27th June in order to make their move before Christmas.
London sellers need to be on the market by 1st July; in the East Midlands the deadline is 3rd July; while in the East and South East the deadline is 7th July.
There are, however, some parts of Britain in which sellers have a little more flexibility.
In Scotland, the average selling timeline is just 94 days. This means that to have moved home by 11th December, they don’t need to list their current property until 8th September.
Also, the North East has a selling time of 132 days which means sellers must be on the market by 1st August.
Can you speed up the process?
Selling a home takes longer than it should, due to a number of factors - how long searches take, completing a survey, getting your mortgage offer in, for example – and all of these impact the time it takes to move, from accepting an offer to completion. Making sure you’re as prepared as you can, and doing things such as getting your mortgage in place and arranging a survey as soon as you can, will all help.
Of course, not all transactions are the same - a cash buyer will likely move quicker, however a longer chain or a leasehold transaction will extend timelines, so you may want to be choosier about who you accept an offer from (as long as this itself does not slow down the process).
The best plan of attack is to understand what’s unique about your home, which conveyancer suits your sale best and just what’s needed from you as a seller at each step of the process. Doing so will ensure you’re legally prepared and your transaction timeline is as short as it can be allowing you to make your move with confidence.
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