Buying a house is a time-consuming business and recent data from housebuying and selling experts One Dome has revealed that this isparticularly the case if you’re buying in London.
Across the UK as a whole, the average transaction completion time – the time from when an offer on a property is accepted to its completion – is 15 weeks, but, in some parts of the capital it’s as much as 21 weeks.
The slowest boroughs
While there are variations between postcodes, overall London property transactions take significantly longer than elsewhere in the country. The worst performing postcode came from North London’s N21, which covers Bush Hill, Winchmore Hill, and Grange Park. Here, the time between accepted offer and completion averaged 147 days – that’s 21 weeks, and 6 weeks longer than the national average.
The N16 postcode which includes Stoke Newington, Shacklewell, part of Stamford Hill, part of Dalston, and part of Newington Green, fared little better and averaged 142 days. It wasn’t just in North London though; transactions in the CR4 postcode area, covering Mitcham, and Pollards Hill area to the south, averaged 141 days, just over 20 weeks.
There were seven other postcodes where property took between 19 and 20 weeks to go through. These included N5 (Highbury and Highbury Fields) at 140 days; E7 (Forest Gate, Aldersbrook, Upton, Plashet, Manor Park, Maryland, Leytonstone, Plaistow, Upton Park, and Stratford) at 137 days; E17 (Walthamstow and Upper Walthamstow) taking 136 days; CR5 (Reigate and Banstead in Surrey) which was 134 days; E11 (Leytonstone, Wanstead, Aldersbrook (part), Snaresbrook, and Cann Hall) coming in at 133 days; TW11 (Twickenham, Richmondupon Thames, Hounslow, Feltham, Shepperton, Staines, Egham, and Wraysbury) at 133 days and SE16 (Rotherhithe, Bermondsey and Surrey Keys) taking 131 days.
The best performers
While, in general, London transaction times took longer than the national average, there were a few standout boroughs were things moved quicker. The HA9 postcode of northwest London, which includes the areas of Wembley, Wembley Park, Wembley Central (East), Preston, and Tokyngton, was the quickest place in the capital to buy as properties completed on average in just 68 days – that’s less than 10 weeks. N4 (Finsbury Park, Manor House, Part of Harringay, and Part of Stroud Green) and N8 (Hornsey, Crouch End, and part of Harringay) also performed well, with an average completion time of just over 10 weeks, at 74 days.
TW12 (Hampton), NW2 (Cricklewood, Dollis Hill, Most of Childs Hill, Part of Willesden, and Part of Neasden), and W6 (Hammersmith andRavenscourt Park) all also produced completion times of between 11 and 12 weeks.
“Although some areas of London are performing extremely well in property transaction times, the overall picture isn’t great. One Dome's HomeBuying Speed Index shows that the national average property transaction time is 15 weeks, which is still sluggish, but when you have parts of London where completion times are reaching up to 21 weeks – more than five months – it’s clear that something needs to be done. These delays are costing people money and causing huge amounts of stress,” says Babek Ismayil, One Dome founder.
“There are many reasons why these delays are happening, but one of the easiest to tackle is the lack of centralised project management technology needed to drive the transaction forward and change behaviours.”
Ismayil believes that Artificial Intelligence might provide the solution in the future: “We have invested heavily in our AI-based platform, helping to streamline the process and reduce delays. If more businesses within the property sector were to adopt a similar system, we maysee property transactions taking just days instead of months.”
