The time taken to complete property transactions in Great Britain has continued to increase, with the most marked changes emerging since the pandemic. In April, the average period from a property going under offer to exchange of contracts reached 104 days, compared with 76 days in 2019 and around 60 days in the early 2010s, according to the latest figures provided by Connells.
More than half of transactions now take longer to reach exchange than it takes to secure a buyer, the estate agency revealed in its latest market update. In April, 61% of deals took longer to complete after an offer was accepted than the time taken to find a buyer.
Longer timelines are affecting transaction stability. Around 17% of homes now take more than six months to reach exchange after going under offer, up from 13% a year ago and 5% a decade ago. As timescales extend, buyers and sellers are exposed for longer to changes in mortgage pricing, survey results and personal circumstances, which can increase the likelihood of deals falling through later in the process.
Differences between cash and mortgage transactions have also widened slightly after converging in 2024. In April, mortgage-funded purchases took nine days longer to reach exchange than cash purchases. While this gap remains below the 15-day difference seen in April 2022, it reflects renewed divergence amid ongoing mortgage market adjustments.
Leasehold transactions continue to take significantly longer than freehold sales. In April, the average leasehold property took 155 days to reach exchange, compared with 97 days for a freehold property. The 58-day gap between the two is the widest on record, up from 13 days prior to the pandemic. The increase has been linked to additional legal requirements and delays in obtaining information from managing agents.
The impact is most pronounced in areas with higher proportions of flats, including London and other major urban centres, where leasehold properties make up a larger share of transactions.
Fall-through rates have remained broadly stable overall, but differences between property types have widened. In 2025, 37% of agreed sales did not reach completion. Freehold fall-throughs stood at 36%, compared with 43% for leasehold transactions. In 2019, the gap between the two was within two percentage points.
The data suggests that leasehold transactions are more likely to collapse at the buyer stage. Last year, 12% of sellers withdrew from both freehold and leasehold deals. However, 25% of freehold buyers pulled out, compared with 34% of leasehold buyers.
On timing, freehold transactions that failed typically did so after 85 days, while leasehold deals fell through after an average of 115 days. This indicates that additional time required to gather and review leasehold information can push transactions further along before issues arise.
Late-stage fall-throughs have also become more common. In 2025, 23% of all failed transactions occurred more than three months after an offer was agreed, up from 18% in 2019. For flats, the proportion rose from 26% to 29%, while for houses it increased more modestly from 17% to 19%.
Aneisha Beveridge, research director at Connells Group, commented: “For the first time on record, it is now taking more than 100 days, on average, for a sale to progress from offer agreed to exchange. That highlights how much more drawn out the transaction process has become, particularly since the pandemic. Extra checks, longer chains and tighter legal and compliance requirements are all adding time , with leasehold purchases standing out as the biggest contributor to delays.
“The knock on effect is that buyers and sellers are left exposed for longer once a deal is agreed, and we’re increasingly seeing more transactions collapse later in the process. As sales take longer to work their way through the system, buyers become more exposed to changes in mortgage rates and house prices if conditions shift during that period. That extended uncertainty builds further down the line. This doesn’t just matter for the housing market itself – delayed or failed moves can also weigh on consumer confidence, labour mobility and, ultimately, wider economic growth.”
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