The 25 locations where homes sell the fastest in July 2023

We track the speed of property sales in the UK. We can tell you where homes are selling the fastest in July 2023.

We track the speed of property sales in the UK – the time it takes from a property being listed for sale to being sold subject to contract.

Our latest analysis into how long it takes to sell a house shows that UK homes are selling in 30 days on average.

But some homeowners could expect to sell in just 21 days, depending on where you live.

With all this data to hand, we can estimate how long it’d take to sell your house. Just track your home and head to your local market stats.

Time to sell a UK home matches the 5-year average

The current average sell time of 30 days is in line with the 5-year average and one day slower than in January 2023.

The amount of time a property spends on the market is a very seasonal measure. Generally, you’ll sell more quickly in the first half of the year than the second half.

However, the current time to sell is 10 days slower than this time last year, when more people were moving after the pandemic.

Higher mortgage rates, cost-of-living pressures and lower consumer confidence have hit buyer demand, which is translating into slower sales across much of the country.

The 25 fastest locations to sell a home in the UK

With value for money now playing a much bigger role in the housing market, there’s been a great deal of change to our list in the last year.

Only 8 of last year’s fastest housing markets are still in the top 25. Demand has dropped in locations that saw fast sales – and subsequently strong price growth – in 2022.

Sale times slow where house prices rose sharply in 2022

Fast-moving housing markets tend to see above-average house price growth, as buyers compete for fewer houses.

But now mortgage rates are higher, many of last year’s fastest markets have slowed down. Buyers are increasingly unable to afford those places where homes sold the fastest and prices rose the most.

Southern locations are particularly affected due to the higher average house prices. Dartford, Exeter, Luton and Ipswich have all fallen off the list since last July.

The Midlands is seeing the same trend with homes selling more slowly in Rugby, Worcester, Coventry and Redditch.

And it’s a similar story in the North West, with buyers now turning away from the areas they were after last year, like central Manchester, Bury, Wigan and Chorley.

Properties selling fastest in new affordable locations

Different areas have risen to the top of our fastest-markets list as buyers find more value in new locations.

In the North West, buyers are moving the fastest in parts of Cumbria, with Eden, Carlisle, Allerdale and Copeland all appearing on our list for the first time.

Three parts of Newcastle make the list this year when nowhere in the North East featured a year ago. Homes in the city centre, North Tyneside and Gateshead are selling in 21, 23 and 24 days respectively.

In the West Midlands, homeowners are selling the quickest in Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil have sale times of 23 and 25 days, replacing last year’s Welsh entries of Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend.

Bexley and Waltham Forest – both in East London – offer relative affordability for Londoners, while the commutability of Woking, Basingstoke, Colchester and Cambridge is likely contributing to their fast sale times.

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East Midlands and East of England see biggest slowdown in time to sell

When we look at regional trends, the East Midlands and the East of England have seen the biggest slowdown in time to sell. Homes now take 4 and 3 more days to sell respectively than they usually would have over the last 5 years.

Meanwhile, the North East, West Midlands and South West are the only 3 regions where homes are selling more quickly than the UK average.

It takes 27 days to sell a property in the North East – 5 days quicker than its 5-year average of 32 days.

Homes in the West Midlands have a 28-day sell time. This is a little slow for this region, as its average sell time over the last 5 years was 27 days.

The South West comes in at 29 days – quicker than the UK average, but a day slower than you’d expect in the region over the last 5 years.

At the bottom end of the table, homes in London and the South East are selling the slowest. It takes 35 and 34 days on average, although these are both only one day slower than their 5-year averages.

How long does it take to sell a house after you’ve agreed an offer?

Our data only looks at the time it takes between a property being listed for sale and being sold subject to contract.

After that, there’s still a lot that needs to happen before you can move.

The conveyancing and mortgage application process usually takes between 3 and 4 weeks, but it might be longer – especially if you’re in a chain.

Then you’ll exchange contracts, which is when you and the buyer are both legally locked into the sale.

The day you’re really waiting for is completion day, when you hand over the keys. This usually happens 1 to 3 weeks after exchange. But like a lot of things in the home moving process, it can be quicker or slower than that.

Key takeaways

• The average time to achieve a sale in the UK is 30 days, which was also the average speed over the last 5 years
• A year ago, UK homes were selling in an average of 19 days due to greater competition among buyers
• Only 8 of last year’s fastest areas remain in this year’s top 25 locations as buyers seek value for money in different places
• The major cities where properties sell the fastest are Newcastle, Bristol and Cardiff
• The North East of England is the fastest moving region in the country with homes selling in 27 days on average