Nearly three-quarters of recent home movers experienced delays, but new research suggests property professionals remain divided over how to speed up transactions.
The average home move in Great Britain now takes 216 days from first listing to completion, according to figures cited in the latest Voice of the Agent report.
Rightmove data shows sellers typically wait 62 days to secure a buyer. The journey from sale agreed to completion then takes another 154 days.
The post-sale process is now 36 days longer than in 2019, an increase of 31%.
Research published by We Are Unchained found 72% of recent home movers experienced a delay.
Among delayed movers who identified a responsible party, 50% blamed their conveyancer or solicitor. Another 40% blamed the buyer or seller.
Just 5% blamed the estate agent.
The figures form part of The Voice of the Agent 2026 research. The latest report examines transactions from the perspective of movers and property professionals.
It also highlights significant regional differences.
Around 80% of London movers reported delays. The figure reached 79% in the East Midlands and 78% in Wales and the North West.
By comparison, 43% of movers in Scotland experienced delays.
However, the research suggests the industry has yet to agree on the best way to improve the process.
For estate agents, faster communication and proactive updates emerged as the main priority. Some 33% of agents selected this option.
Another 25% of agents want shared case tracking, while only 10% chose integrated digital systems.
Conveyancers identified different priorities.
Some 23% said a better understanding of each profession’s role would improve working relationships. Another 21% chose clearer expectations for clients.
Only 13% of conveyancers identified faster communication as the main solution.
Mortgage advisers and brokers placed equal importance on faster communication and agreed service standards, at 22% each.
Surveyors proved more sceptical about the suggested solutions. Some 29% said none of the proposed measures would materially improve working relationships.
The research also uncovered differences in how professionals view their relationships with each other.
Some 67% of estate agents described their relationship with conveyancers positively. Only 50% of conveyancers said the same about agents.
The equivalent figures were 54% versus 44% for agents and surveyors.
For mortgage advice, 58% of agents viewed the relationship positively, compared with 54% of mortgage professionals.
Simon Leadbetter, founder of We Are Unchained and author of The Voice of the Agent, said: “Everybody owns part of the property transaction, but nobody owns the transaction. That may be the fundamental problem.”
“A buyer or seller does not experience an estate agent transaction, followed by a mortgage transaction, followed by a surveying transaction and then a legal transaction. They experience one home move.
“Yet our research shows that the people delivering that move experience very different problems. Agents want information. Conveyancers want understanding. Mortgage professionals want service discipline. Surveyors are less convinced that systemic intervention is required.
“There is enormous investment going into upfront information, shared data, AI, digital identity and transaction platforms, and much of that is necessary. But remarkably few professionals told us integrated technology was the thing they most needed.
“The evidence suggests we also need to fix the spaces between the professions: expectations, communication, role clarity, service standards and visibility. Making four separate processes faster does not necessarily create one better transaction.”
The report comes as government and industry pursue several initiatives designed to speed up home moving. These include the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, Project 28, digital property data standards, upfront information and new transaction technology.
Part Eight also examines auctions as an alternative route to selling property.
Almost half of agents (49%) already recommend auctions regularly or occasionally. A further 20% do not currently recommend them but would consider doing so.
This means almost seven in ten agents either use auctions or would consider recommending them to clients.
The report argues that delays do not stem from a single broken process. Instead, it describes a transaction involving several professions that do not always work effectively together.
It suggests reform should therefore focus on improving links between the different professions, as well as individual parts of the transaction process.
The findings will be discussed at The Voice of the Agent Conference on 20 November 2026 at the University of Oxford. Clare Yates will lead a panel examining potential changes across the property transaction chain.
Download the report here.
Comments (2)
Asking buyers and sellers, who move on average once every 7 years, is a piece of the puzzle rather than the conclusion.
Agents and solicitors, who do this day in day out, must be able to, in combination, find the solution for the benefit of their clients – and themselves.
Whenever there is a comparison made with Scotland – or another country – it fails to understand or illustrate the principles that make it successful – and every other country has the same two principles.
First, up front information – this does some of the work. It provides a degree of clarity at offer stage but also allows conveyancing to commence immediately after sale agreed – rather than the usual 2-4 week wait for the contract (even longer with the LPE1).
Second – the big one – chains. No other country operates with chains and it makes any comparison impossible.
We can either make our chain system as good as possible (read the Carsberg Report 2008 which is still as good as any review) – and still have delays and low certainty – or we can modernise the transaction and operate like every other western country.
Increased sharing of information, aml, digitising etc will all help but won’t solve the problems we face.
Always the conveyancer who’s either working from home or the monthly annual leave.