selling

How long does it take to sell a house in the UK?

How long does it take to sell a house in the UK? GOV.UK and Rightmove figures with dates, the stages from listing to completion, and what slows a sale.

5 min read
Last reviewed 29 October 2026
By Your Property Check team

Part 1 of 7

The short version

GOV.UK says "selling a home takes about 5 months on average" and that it can take longer if you are part of a chain of buyers and sellers. Rightmove, which publishes figures from its own listings, gives more detail. All numbers on this page are averages. None of them is a promise about your own sale. This page covers England and Wales, and the Rightmove figures cover Great Britain.

Part 2 of 7

The figures, with sources and dates

What was measured	Figure	Source and date
Whole sale, on average	About 5 months	GOV.UK, buying and selling your home, read 29 October 2026
Days to find a buyer, Great Britain	67 days	Rightmove house price index page, September 2026 figure, read 29 October 2026
Days to find a buyer, London	78 days	Rightmove house price index page, October 2026
Listing to completion	216 days on average	Property Industry Eye reporting Rightmove, 31 July 2026
Of which: to secure a buyer	62 days	Same report
Of which: sale agreed to completion	154 days	Same report
Sale agreed to completion	167 days (5.5 months)	Rightmove guide, "as of March 2026"

The two completion figures, 154 and 167 days, come from different dates and data, so do not treat one as a correction of the other. What they agree on is the shape of a sale. Finding a buyer takes weeks. The time between an agreed sale and completion takes much longer.

Part 3 of 7

Days to find a buyer by region

Rightmove's page lists average days to find a buyer for October 2026. They vary a lot:

Region	Days
Scotland	34
North East	54
North West	59
West Midlands	66
Yorkshire and The Humber	66
Wales	71
East of England	72
East Midlands	74
South East	74
South West	76
London	78

These measure the time to find a buyer only, not the time to complete. Scotland has a different legal process from England and Wales.

Part 4 of 7

The stages, and what takes the time

GOV.UK sets out the steps in order. Here is where time goes in each.

Preparing. Checking your mortgage figure, estimating the value, choosing whether to use an agent, picking a conveyancer, and gathering paperwork including an EPC. This is in your control. Doing it before you list saves time later.
Marketing and viewings. This is the "days to find a buyer" part in the table above. Price and presentation affect it.
Negotiating and accepting an offer. GOV.UK says buyers can offer verbally or in writing and that an agent must tell you about any offer. An accepted offer is not binding yet.
Legal work. GOV.UK says once you accept an offer, the buyer's solicitor or conveyancer arranges searches and reviews the property's title. Replies to their questions and the progress of any searches can add weeks. See how long conveyancing takes for the detail.
Exchange of contracts. GOV.UK says your property is not legally sold until you have exchanged written contracts, and that after exchange neither side can usually withdraw without paying compensation.
Completion. Money moves, your solicitor pays off your mortgage, and the keys change hands.

The long stretch in the data is steps 4 and 5.

Part 5 of 7

What makes a sale slower

A chain. GOV.UK says a sale can take longer if you are part of a chain. If anyone in the chain is delayed, everyone waits.
Slow replies. Each question your solicitor puts to you, or the other side puts to theirs, adds time if it sits in an inbox.
Missing paperwork. GOV.UK lists title deeds, certificates and warranties buyers will want. Hunting for them after an offer holds things up.
An asking price above the evidence. It can lengthen the find-a-buyer stage. Check sold prices before you list.
A sale that falls through. Starting again resets the clock. See why property sales fall through.
Complications with the property or the owner. A leasehold flat, an unusual title or a sale on behalf of someone else involves extra steps. GOV.UK says selling for someone else, for example after a death, may need extra steps.

Part 6 of 7

What speeds a sale up

You cannot control the whole chain, but you can control your side:

Have your EPC and paperwork ready before you list.
Instruct a conveyancer early, and ask them how they will keep you updated.
Return forms and answer questions the same day.
Judge the buyer as well as the offer. Citizens Advice says you can choose any buyer, and lists whether they are in a chain, have cash or need a mortgage, and can move when you want.

Our guide to how to sell a house quickly goes through these in order. Auctions and cash buyers can be quicker, but each gives up price or choice.

Part 7 of 7

How to use these figures

Use them to plan, not to predict. A sale in a quiet month in a slow region is a different job from one in a busy month in a fast region, and a chain-free buyer is a different job from a long chain. Ask your agent how many of their recent sales have exchanged, and how long each took from offer to exchange, so you hear their real record rather than a national average. If you must be out by a date, work backwards from the five-month average and a chain risk, and ask your conveyancer and agent for a realistic range for your case. Nobody can honestly promise a completion date before contracts are exchanged.

This page is general information. Rightmove's figures change monthly, so check the source pages for the latest.

Our take

Plan for the range, not the headline average

GOV.UK says about 5 months on average, and Rightmove data reported in July 2026 splits that into 62 days to find a buyer and 154 days from sale agreed to completion. We think the common mistake is to plan around the best case, because nobody can honestly promise a date before exchange.

Your Property Check lets you weigh timescale against money. Our free sale method comparison compares auction, estate agent and cash buyer on net proceeds and timescale, so you can see the trade off before you choose a route.

Compare sale routes

Our opinion, drawn from the facts on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.