There has been a significant increase in property transaction times over the past decade, new figures from Twenty EA shows.
According to the data, in 2014 the average property turnaround time was 94 days. That figure now stands at 122, an increase of 23%, whilst fall throughs have risen by 11.6% to 23,243 in 2024, compared to 22,613 in 2014.
This is more of a concern considering it is against a backdrop of decreasing transactions, which are 3.6% lower in 2024 at 1,175,000 compared to 1,218,750 in 2014, according to ASAP, a sales progression specialist, which analysed the figures.
When it comes to house prices, the data shows an overall average rise of 53.8% – from £185,476 to £285,201 today. Semi-detached properties have seen the biggest price rise from £174,092 to £278,793 – an increase of 60.1%.
One-bedroom properties have seen the lowest increase at 8.1%, from £180,686 to £195,390. This is a stark contrast to four-bedroom houses which have risen by 48.5 per cent up to £508,019 in 2024 compared to £342,099 in 2014.
When looking at regional price variations, the South West has seen the biggest rise from £246,602 to £361,813, up by 46.7%. Scotland and the North-East have seen the lowest rises, each at 10.1 per cent.
Megson, managing director at ASAP, said: “There are a multitude of influences that have affected the market over the last 10 years, but the post-Covid bounce (partly thanks to the stamp duty holiday), was a pinnacle moment. It had a major impact on the type of property that people bought, including flexibility on location due to the home working phenomenon, resulting in price increases on the outskirts of major cities. It also meant that agents saw a number of operational changes, leading to more outsourcing as businesses scaled up and down to meet demand, which in turn, helped our business to grow.
“Whilst it’s been exciting to see the advancement of tech in the last decade, as well as the proliferation of solutions aiming to speed up housing, unfortunately property transaction times are taking longer and fall throughs are on the rise. This is particularly concerning as, generally speaking, fall throughs represent unpaid work for agents. In 2014, the fall through rate was 21% and that has moved in the wrong direction to 24% today.”