The average time taken to buy a home today is more than five months – around a month longer than it took house purchase transactions to complete before the pandemic, according to Smoove’s Home Movers Report.

Within the last six months, the average time taken to complete the home purchasing process stands at 153 days. In 2019, it took 124 days – an increase of 29 days, or 23%.

Smoove said the increase is most likely a result of the post-lockdown boom, as changing consumer lifestyles and demand outweigh supply, combined with greater capacity constraints for solicitors, and local authority searches taking longer to complete likely due to technology failures or a large backlog.

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