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Whether you’re a first time buyer or moving home, buying a house usually takes longer than you’d expect. We look at how long each stage takes, what causes delays and how to speed things up.
KEY INFORMATION
Buying a house takes an average of 5 months from when your offer is accepted, according to government figures. But the timeframe can vary a lot in the UK depending on factors like whether you’re in a chain.
Before we get to those considerations, here’s a breakdown of the key stages of buying a house and how long they typically take. Read on for more details on each of these stages.
| Stage of buying a house | Average timescale |
|---|---|
| Calculating how much you can afford | 1-2 days |
| Finding your perfect house | 3 months to 1 year |
| Making an offer | Up to 1 week |
| Arranging your mortgage | 2-4 weeks |
| Conveyancing process | 12 weeks |
| Getting house survey | Up to 1 week |
| Exchange to completion | 1-28 days |
Timeline: 1-2 days
Before you can find your new home, you’ll need to know how much you can borrow on a mortgage first, unless you’re a cash buyer. Here’s how the process works:
Timeline: 3 months to 1 year
Buying a house is a huge investment so it’s crucial to dedicate time to finding your perfect home. But to avoid wasting time in this process, you need to have a strategy in place.
Timeline: Up to 1 week
Getting this bit right is crucial if you want to secure your dream home at the right price. So don’t just phone up and offer the asking price, take your time to do research first:
Read more on this process in the guide Making an offer – and haggling over the price.
Top tip: Having an offer accepted is exciting but it’s not a done deal until you exchange contracts – 32% of sales collapsed in the first 3 months of 2024, according to Quick Move Now’s data. So consider buying Home Buyers Protection Insurance, which helps cover elements of your legal, survey and mortgage costs should your purchase fall through.
Timescale 2-4 weeks
As soon as you’ve had your offer accepted on a house you need to apply for your mortgage. How long does it take to get a mortgage? This will depend on how busy the lender is, how straightforward your application is and whether there are any issues with the mortgage valuation.
But generally speaking, it takes around 2-4 weeks to get a mortgage offer in the UK.
Get fee free mortgage advice from our partners at L&C. Use the online mortgage finder or speak to an advisor today.
Timeline: 12 weeks to exchange
Conveyancing (the legal process that transfers a property from one person to another) usually takes about 12 weeks to get to exchange of contracts, although this timeframe can vary widely. This process also starts once your offer is accepted.
Timeline: Up to 1 week
Arranging your house survey should also be done as soon as possible after your offer on a house has been accepted. It shows the sellers you are keen to buy the house and it also avoids any unnecessary delays.
You can use our free tool to get instant quotes and find local Chartered Surveyors in your area:
Get instant house survey quotes from Chartered Surveyors in your area.
Timeline: 1-28 days
Once the legal side is sorted, you’ve got your mortgage offer and you’re satisfied with the survey, it’s time to exchange contracts. This means you’re legally-bound to buy the house and the seller is legally-bound to sell it on a date agreed – your completion day.
If this doesn’t happen, the party responsible can face steep penalties.
So this is when you can pop the champagne after potentially months of stress and worry over whether the sale will actually go through.
Compare conveyancing quotes from regulated and reviewed conveyancing solicitors that cover your area.
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Unfortunately, there are many factors at play that can cause delays in the house buying process, including:
If you’re in a chain and there’s delays with another transaction in the chain it may delay your purchase too. Even worse, if a sale in the chain falls through, your purchase could be delayed while they find another buyer or your purchase could fall down completely.
One way to avoid this is to ‘break the housing chain’. For example, you could choose to sell first and move into rented accommodation until you buy. This may make the buying process easier and you’re likely to be a more attractive buyer to sellers too. But there are pros and cons to this. Find out more in our guide ‘How do I break the housing chain’
There’s a lot of paperwork involved when you’re buying a house so there’s a lot of potential for delays such as if there’s missing information in the TA6 property information form or the TA10 fixtures and fittings form
Local authority searches should take 10 days but many local authorities miss this deadline. Recent turnaround times reported by Property Searches Direct in December 2024 revealed the worst offenders were taking more than 25 working days to return local authority searches.
If you get a bad house survey report on the home you want to buy, this can cause delays.
Leasehold conveyancing tends to take longer than conveyancing on a freehold property. This is simply because there is more work for your solicitor to do and they have to wait for another party – the landlord or lease administrator – to respond to their enquiries.
Compare conveyancing quotes from regulated and reviewed conveyancing solicitors that cover your area.
Get instant quotes from regulated and reviewed conveyancing solicitors that cover your area. Our customers save on average £490.
While there will be some issues you can have no control over, there are some steps you can take to speed up the process of buying a house including:
Conveyancing solicitors can’t begin work until they have conducted anti-money laundering checks. So by instructing your conveyancer first and giving them the necessary ID you’ll be one step ahead. Compare conveyancing quotes now.
Getting hold of local searches can cause major delays in some parts of the country. Check our guide to see how long searches take in your area. If they are taking a long time, check if you can get them done more quickly by using a search company to do a ‘personal local authority search’ on your behalf.
It’s a good idea to ask for regular updates from your conveyancer and estate agent so you’re fully informed about your sale’s progress. It has the added benefit of making sure your case hasn’t dropped to the bottom of the pile. Pencil in discussions in the diary so they know to have made progress by that date.
Answering queries quickly and nudging people along is your new full-time job now. As ridiculous as that sounds, if you see it as such and don’t solely trust it to others to progress your transaction, then you’ll help to speed up the conveyancing process. Find more in our guide How to speed up conveyancing.
It typically takes around 2-4 weeks from making a mortgage application to getting a mortgage offer. But it can take longer if the lender is busy or if your application isn’t straight forward. It’s advisable to use a fee-free mortgage broker because as well as finding you the best mortgage deal, they’ll also manage the application process for you.
The lender will arrange for a mortgage valuation to be carried out as part of the application process to make sure the property is worth what you’ve agreed to pay. If the lender is happy, they may send the mortgage offer out a week later, although this varies by lender. But there’s always a risk they might ‘down value‘ the property. Find out more in our guide Down valuations: 6 things to do if it happens to you.
After receiving the results of property searches, it typically takes 1 to 3 weeks to exchange contracts, the point the sale becomes legally binding. During this time any issues identified in the searches (and any other issues) can be resolved, the mortgage arrangements can be finalised and a completion date agreed.
It generally takes 3 months to 1 year to find a house. But this will vary depending on how many properties are available, how much competition you have from other buyers and how flexible you are in terms of what you’re looking for.
The average time it takes to buy a house once the offer is accepted is 5 months. But it can take much longer, for example if you’re part of a long housing chain.
HomeOwners Alliance Ltd is registered in England, company number 07861605. Information provided on HomeOwners Alliance is not intended as a recommendation or financial advice.
Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), Unit 26 (2.06), Newark Works, 2 Foundry Lane, Bath BA2 3GZ, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
HomeOwners Alliance Ltd is an Introducer Appointed Representative (IAR) of LifeSearch Limited, an Appointed Representative of LifeSearch Partners Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. (FRN: 656479).
Independent Financial Adviser service is provided by Unbiased, who match you to a fully regulated, independent financial adviser, with no charge to you for the referral.
Bridging Loan and specialist lending service provided by Chartwell Funding Limited, registered office 5 Badminton Court, Station Road, Yate, Bristol, BS37 5HZ, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN: 458223). Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any debt secured on it.
