Buyers frustrated as bottleneck sees transactions take longer to complete
- Homes that exchanged in last 30 days took a month longer to get to that stage
- Solicitors have had a huge backlog of work since the property market reopened in May – and buyers trying to make the stamp duty holiday have added to it
- One buyer offered on a flat with no chain in October but has still not exchanged
The average property is taking nearly a month longer to sell once under offer, due to a conveyancing bottleneck that has developed since the property market shutdown in March and April.
The multi-agent property seller Movewise looked at properties that had exchanged over the past 30 days, and found that the buyers’ offer had been accepted 124 days previously on average – just over four months.
For properties that had exchanged over the past six months, the average time between the offer being accepted and exchange was was 96 days, which is just over three months. This means that properties are now taking nearly a third more time to exchange.
Conveyancing solicitors are struggling to deal with a backlog of work that has developed since the property market shut down during the first national lockdown in spring, which has led to delays for buyers and sellers trying to exchange contracts.
The stamp duty holiday, which was introduced in July, encouraged more buyers into the market which further increased conveyancers’ workloads and has left them struggling to catch up.
There is a similar bottleneck in the workload of local authorities, who have found it difficult to cope with the level of property searches being requested……
Carol Peett, managing director of West Wales Property Finders http://www.westwalespropertyfinders.co.uk, also told This is Money about the delays her and her clients had experienced over the past few months.
‘The lengthy period of time it took for the local authority search on a property a client was buying caused the vendor of that property to lose the property they were buying, and therefore the entire chain broke down, leaving our client homeless having sold their property,’ she said.
‘They now have had to rent somewhere while we find them another suitable property to buy, and then they will have to again experience the delays in the searches coming through; all the time paying rent which they should not have had to do.’
She said the delays were also affecting investors who hoped to cash in on the staycation boom by buying holiday lets.
‘Clients trying to purchase buy-to-holiday-let properties have missed owning the properties in time for the peak letting periods, and therefore lost income.
‘Several clients for whom I found properties in July at the end of the first lockdown were waiting until the end of November for their searches to come through – thus missing the lucrative autumn period for letting and in fact just completing in time for the second lockdown.’
If you are looking to move to Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire or Ceredigion, or buy a property here, give West Wales Property Finders a call on 01834 862816. We can find your perfect property for you whilst saving you time, stress and often money too.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-9196563/Home-buying-bottleneck-means-transactions-taking-longer-complete.html – Daily Mail Friday 28th January 2021
