How long does it take to buy a house?

How long does it take to buy a house UK?

According to recent figures, it currently takes an average of 152 days from having your offer accepted to sale completion. That’s around 5 months.

How long does it take to buy a house if you’re buying with cash?

If you’re buying with cash, you may be able to move a bit more quickly. The mortgage process contributes to the time it takes for a purchase to complete, but you’ll also be dictated to by how long things like property searches and property survey reports take to come back. The biggest factor in how long it takes to buy a house if you’re buying with cash is often whether you’re part of a property chain. Completing property chains and waiting for everyone’s sale to align can often take several months.

How long does it normally take to buy a house if you have a mortgage in principle?

Having a mortgage agreement in principle can help to speed up the start of the property-buying process. An agreement in principle means the mortgage lender has already carried out some preliminary checks and given an indication of how much they might be happy to lend you. If you have an agreement in principle in place, you will just need to submit a formal application when you find a property you want to buy.

Having an agreement in principle before making an offer on a property has the potential to save you a week or two on your property purchase.

How long does it take to buy a new house?

How long it takes to buy a new house will depend on what stage the building is at. If the property is complete and ready to move into and you don’t have a property to sell, you could potentially move in around 8-12 weeks.

Do you have a property to sell? You might want to consider exploring property part exchange as a way of speeding up your move.

If your property is not yet ready to move into, the housebuilding company should be able to give you an idea of the expected completion date. It’s important to remember that this date is provisional and may change if there are hold-ups in the building process, which is not uncommon.

How long does it take to buy a probate house?

Probate can be a lengthy process.

If probate has already been granted, there is no reason why buying a probate house should take any longer than buying any other property.

If probate has not yet been granted, you could be in for a long wait. Probate can often take 9-12 months or even longer.

How long does it take to get a mortgage offer

 It usually takes 3-6 weeks to receive your mortgage offer. If your purchase is particularly complicated, you have unusual circumstances or are purchasing a property considered to be ‘high risk’, it may take a little longer.

Having an agreement in principle in advance can help to speed things up, as can having all of the necessary paperwork for your application available before you apply.

The paperwork you will need for your application will include:

• 3 x payslips (covering the last 3 months)
• 3 x bank statements (covering the last 3 months)
• If you’re self-employed, you’ll need to provide proof of income covering the last 2 years
• Proof of identity – usually a driving licence or passport
• Proof of address – mortgage lenders usually require a recent utility bill
• Proof of deposit – if your deposit is being gifted by a parent, you will need to provide a copy of their bank statement to show proof of funds alongside a letter from them stating that the deposit is a gift
• Details of any loans or finance agreements

How long do property searches take?

When you buy a house, there are several property searches that you may wish to apply for. If you’re buying with a mortgage, your lender is likely to insist that you have them. If you are buying with cash, searches will be optional.

Local authority searches

Local authority searches typically take around 4 weeks, but can take longer if there is a backlog, so it’s wise to apply for the searches early on in the house-buying process.

Water and drainage searches

These will check your water supply and waste water services, and typically take around 2 weeks.

Environmental searches

These typically take around a week to complete.

Additional searches you may choose to have

• Mining
• Chancel repair
• Flood risk
• Subsidence
• Energy and infrastructure

How long does a property survey take?

A property survey can usually be booked within a couple of weeks, depending on the surveyor’s availability.

How long the survey takes to complete will depend on the level of survey you choose.

After the survey has been carried out, you can expect to receive the survey report in around a week.

There are lots of variables that will impact how long it takes to buy a house. Whilst there are things you can do to help make your purchase as quick and seamless as possible, your biggest hold-up is likely to be related to any property chain you’re part of. It’s always important to ask about the circumstances of the property you’re interested in buying – have the sellers found their next property? How many people are in the chain? How strong is their need to move? All of this information will help give you an idea of how quick (or not) your move might be.

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