How long does it take to sell a house these days?

A recent study has found that the average house in the UK now takes 91 days to sell. The figure is cited in the ‘City Rate of Sale’ report conducted by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) and the Post Office, which examines the average amount of time properties are on the market in twenty major cities around the UK.

Cities where houses sold the quickest on average include Bristol (51 days) and Edinburgh (53 days), whilst some of the longest periods were found in Swansea (100 days) and Liverpool (108 days). In general, properties in cities situated in the West of the UK were found to have the longest wait before they were sold.

“House prices continue to rise across the country but eager sellers should remember that this might not be any guarantee of a successful sale”, said John Willcock, Post Office Money’s Head of Mortgages.“ The attractive asking prices can lead many people to put their property on the market, leading to competition in the local market. Even property hotspots such as London are not necessarily guaranteed to sell quickly”.

As well as having one of the shortest times, Edinburgh was also found to have seen the greatest reduction in the average time taken over the past twelve months, as a typical property now takes around 25% less time to sell than it did a year ago. Housing markets which have seen the sharpest rise in the amount of time taken include London, which has seen a time increase of 20% and Brighton, which has seen a 24% increase. This is despite both areas being amongst those which have performed the best since the financial crisis of 2008; the longer wait to sell is thought to be in part due to the amount of properties listed for sale in these cities.

The report also found that house prices have risen in the past year in nineteen of the twenty cities analysed, with only Swansea offering prices which have remained steady. In the year to June 2016, the average house price rose 8.7% across the UK. Despite this, pressure on the housing market appears to have softened recently thanks to falls in both supply and demand.

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