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Time it takes to agree a sale is currently the quickest it has been since 2016 – claim

Time it takes to agree a sale is currently the quickest it has been since 2016 – claim

Fresh research suggests that the time it takes for a house to receive an accepted offer is the quickest it has been for five years – decreasing by 42% since 2016.

Analysts at money.co.uk looked at data from Zoopla, assessing the number of days between a listing appearing on Zoopla and a sale being agreed upon, by month, to reveal the average time it takes for a house to go under offer and the best months to do so.

Time taken to sell a house by Year

Year

Time to sell (days)

2016

45

2017

47

2018

50

2019

53

2020

46

2021

33

2022

26

May 2022 saw an average time of 21 days for an accepted offer which is the quickest that the average house sale has been in the last five years.

The average number of days to a sale has generally fluctuated but on the whole, has seen a decrease. In total, the average number of days it takes to secure an accepted offer on a house has decreased by 60% between January 2016 and May 2022.

So far, 2022 is by far the year where house sales are going through the quickest, at an average of 26 days. In contrast, 2019 saw sales drag on the longest, averaging 53 days to agree upon a sale.

The best month to sell a house

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Average

Jan

53

58

58

64

60

52

32

54

Feb

47

54

54

62

54

52

29

50

Mar

41

46

48

55

46

44

25

44

Apr

33

37

40

47

44

32

21

36

May

36

38

40

45

56

26

21

37

Jun

38

40

43

47

59

25

42

Jul

42

44

46

49

50

26

43

Aug

46

47

50

51

35

27

43

Sep

49

49

53

52

31

28

44

Oct

50

50

55

53

33

28

45

Nov

51

51

56

54

38

29

47

Dec

54

54

59

57

44

29

50

Coming in at the quickest month to secure an accepted offer on a house is April, with the average sale taking 36 days compared to the average of 54 days it takes in January.

This is likely due to the fact that during winter, many people are occupied by the Christmas celebrations, while many people are on summer holidays from June to August. However, Spring is generally a much quieter time of year for most people, which could be why properties sell quickly at this time. Most years tend to roughly follow this same pattern, with 2020 as the notable exception.

Although the data shows a general decrease in the time to secure an offer, the longest average time the process has taken was in January 2019 (64 days) – 11 more days than it took in January 2016.

The-most-in-demand-areas-in-the-UK-map.j

SOURCE: Property Industry Eye | AUGUST 15, 2022 | MARC DA SILVA

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