Moving house is both exciting and stressful. Once you decide to do it, you’ll be keen to progress as quickly as possible. However, it can be a long process with twists and turns along the way. There’s also lots of juggling to do if you’re selling and buying.
According to our latest data, the average time from an offer being accepted on a property to exchanging contracts is 7 weeks. That’s not including the time it takes to get an offer on your home or find one you want to buy and have your offer accepted.
Once you add on the time from exchange to completion, this means it could take five or six months from deciding to move to actually moving. It could take even longer if the sale falls through or there are other delays.
If you know what to expect and plan ahead, you can at least ensure you’re doing everything you can to make the process go as smoothly and quickly as possible.
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Moving house timeline
These are the main stages of moving house and the average amount of time it might take so you know what to prepare for. Some of them will happen alongside each other:
Instructing a conveyancer (one to two weeks)
Getting a buyer (five to 14 weeks)
Finding a new home (four to 12 weeks)
Arranging a mortgage (two to six weeks)
Surveying the property (two to three weeks)
Navigating the conveyancing process (eight to 12 weeks)
Moving to your new home (one week)
Instructing a conveyancer (one to two weeks)
You need a conveyancing solicitor or licensed conveyancer to carry out the legal part of selling and buying a home. Conveyancing in the legal process of transferring the ownership of a property from one person to another.
It’s a good idea to find a conveyancer and ask them to act for you (instruct them) when you put your home on the market. This means you can complete the initial paperwork and identity checks to save time when you accept an offer on your property or have one accepted on another.
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Getting a buyer (five to 14 weeks)
Once your home is listed for sale, it can take a while to get an offer you’re happy with. Our data shows it can take anywhere from five to 14 weeks on average.
Sellers may be reluctant to accept an offer from you if you don’t yet have a buyer for your current home. This means that, even if you’ve found a home you want to move to during this time, you may have to wait for an offer you make to be accepted.
Finding a new home (four to 12 weeks)
How long it takes to find a home you want to make an offer on depends on what you’re looking for and the number of properties on the market.
You probably have a long list of features you want your new home to have, whether that’s a garden or three bedrooms. However, it’s also important to think about aspects such as crime rates, transport and schools if you have or are planning to have children.
As you may have to compete with other buyers for properties, you could make multiple offers before one is accepted.
Arranging a mortgage (two to six weeks)
Most mortgages are now portable, so you can move your existing deal on your current home to a new one. If you’re still within the initial deal period, this means you don’t have to pay early repayment charges (ERCs) to get a mortgage on the new property unless you reduce your borrowing.
You’re effectively paying off the mortgage on your current property and taking it out on the new one, so you still have to go through the application process. You can apply to borrow more if you need to but this would usually be on a different deal and rate.
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Surveying the property (two to three weeks)
Once you’ve had an offer accepted on a new property, you should get a survey carried out to check its condition. There are three levels of home survey to choose from depending on the age and type of property you’re buying. It could take up to three weeks from contacting the surveyor to getting the report.
If the survey uncovers any major issues, such as subsidence or woodworm, you may want to renegotiate the purchase price with the seller or ask for repairs to be done.
What type of survey do I need when buying a house?
Navigating the conveyancing process (eight to 12 weeks)
The conveyancing process ensures the buyers have all the information they need about the property before becoming the new owners.
When any issues have been resolved, contracts are signed and ‘exchanged’. The transaction is now legally binding. Completion day is usually one or two weeks later, when you vacate your current home and can move to your new one.
If you’re using a removal company you should book it four to six weeks before you expect to move and confirm your completion date with the company as soon as you know it.
Moving to your new home (one week)
Once contracts have been exchanged you need to finish packing your belongings. On completion day the outstanding money is transferred from the buyers’ to the sellers’ conveyancers. You can then get the keys and move in.
What slows down a house sale?
The timeline above shows the average time to move house but it’s rarely plain sailing. There are many things that could delay your move, including:
Slow conveyancing or legal issues with the properties
Delays in getting a mortgage
Issues uncovered by the survey
Other parties in a chain of buyers and sellers not being ready to exchange contracts
Your seller accepting a higher offer from another buyer after accepting yours
The buyer or seller pulling out