How long does conveyancing take when selling?

If you are selling your home, the gap between accepting an offer and getting the money is rarely as short as people expect. Most of that gap is conveyancing. Knowing how the time is spent makes the wait less unsettling and shows you where you can actually move the needle.

What is conveyancing?

Conveyancing is the legal process that transfers ownership of a property from one person to another. A solicitor or licensed conveyancer handles it for each side of the sale.

For you as the seller, conveyancing means proving you own the property, answering the buyer's legal questions, drafting the contract, and arranging the formal transfer of title at HM Land Registry. None of it happens until an offer is accepted, and most of it happens out of your sight.

How long does conveyancing take in 2026?

The HomeOwners Alliance puts the typical conveyancing timeline at 12 to 16 weeks, and says even a straightforward sale averages around 12 weeks. The latest national figures show the whole post-offer stage running longer still: Rightmove's September 2026 index found it takes a further 150 days, about five months, to complete once a buyer is found.

Connells research reported on 12 May 2026 measured the leg that matters most, from offer agreed to exchange of contracts. In April 2026 that took 98 days on a freehold home and 155 days on a leasehold one, and Connells reported it was the first time on record that sales had averaged more than 100 days to reach exchange. Transactions now run around four weeks longer than they did in April 2019.

These stages overlap rather than run one after another. The mortgage offer and the searches usually progress at the same time. The slowest stage in the chain sets the pace for everything else.

Where do the delays actually come from?

Rightmove published research on 9 September 2026 breaking down where the biggest hold-ups in a sale actually sit. The legal stage dominates by a wide margin, and most of the list sits outside your estate agent's direct control.

Christian Balshen of Rightmove said alongside the figures that many of the biggest causes of delay sit outside agents' direct control. For a seller the useful reading is different: five of the six causes have a named party and a date attached, which means each one can be chased specifically rather than worried about generally.

What do recent buyers say slows them down?

Research published on 24 September 2026, carried out by FindOutNow for Lyons Bowe Solicitors among 1,046 people who bought a home in the previous two years, looked at the same question from the buyer's side. Conveyancing came out on top again, and so did a lack of visibility.

For a seller, the useful point is the visibility gap. Buyers who cannot see progress assume the worst, so a short weekly update through your agent protects the sale as much as fast paperwork does.

What are the main stages of a sale?

1. Instructing a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to act for you.
2. Your solicitor preparing the draft contract and the standard property forms.
3. The buyer's solicitor ordering searches with the local council and other bodies.
4. The buyer's solicitor raising enquiries, which your side answers in writing.
5. The buyer's lender issuing a formal mortgage offer.
6. Exchange of contracts, the point at which the sale becomes legally binding.
7. Completion, when the money moves and the property changes hands.

What slows conveyancing down?

A few recurring problems account for most delays. They are worth knowing about because some are within your control and some are not.

Local authority searches are the bottleneck sellers most often meet without warning. The HomeOwners Alliance notes that searches should take 10 working days, yet some councils take more than 25, and Rightmove's September 2026 research put searches behind 11% of the biggest delays. A search is a set of official checks on planning, road status, and local plans that affect the property.

Chains are the next common cause. A chain is a line of linked sales where each move depends on the one before it. If one transaction in the chain stalls, every sale in it waits.

Leasehold properties run longer than freehold ones. A leasehold property is one where you own the home for a fixed term but not the land it sits on. In Connells' April 2026 figures a leasehold sale took 155 days to reach exchange against 98 days for freehold, a gap of 57 days, largely because of the wait for a management pack from the freeholder or managing agent.

Slow mortgage processing and missing paperwork round out the list. A buyer's lender can take weeks to issue a formal offer, and a seller who cannot find a planning certificate or a guarantee will hold up the enquiries stage.

How can a seller speed it up?

You cannot control the council or the buyer's lender. You can control your own readiness, and that is where most savings are found. The HomeOwners Alliance says a sale with no chain can take as little as four weeks, and a well-prepared seller gives their buyer the best chance of beating the average.

• Instruct a solicitor before you list, not after you accept an offer, so your file is open and ready.
• Gather your paperwork early: title deeds, planning permissions, building regulation certificates, guarantees, and the energy performance certificate.
• Complete the standard property information forms while the home is still on the market.
• If the property is leasehold, ask your managing agent for the management pack as soon as you decide to sell.
• Reply to your solicitor's questions quickly; a one-day reply keeps the file moving where a two-week reply stalls it.
• Choose your buyer with the chain in mind, not only the offer figure.

That last point matters more than most sellers expect. A slightly lower offer from a chain-free buyer can complete faster and more reliably than a higher offer from a buyer stuck behind two other sales.

Is conveyancing going to get any faster?

The government announced its home buying and selling reforms on 18 June 2026. Sellers and agents will have to provide key information upfront in sales packs at the point of listing, digital property logbooks will let trusted information move securely between professionals, and binding conditional contracts will follow. The government expects the changes to cut buying times by around four weeks, and says failed transactions cost the economy up to £1.5 billion a year.

The legislation is planned for the end of this Parliament, but the work has started. On 24 September 2026 the Conveyancing Association and the Open Property Data Association urged estate agents to act now on the reforms, and the government's first step in 2026 is to identify the sales pack information sellers can provide voluntarily.

None of that applies to a sale agreed today. What it does confirm is that the delay is structural rather than personal, and that the single lever still in a seller's hands is preparing their own paperwork before the offer arrives.

Where does choosing the right agent fit in?

Conveyancing is legal work, but the agent you pick shapes how smoothly it runs. A good agent keeps the chain talking, chases enquiries, and flags problems before they become delays. A weak one lets the file drift.

The sale also starts on your terms, not the agent's. You decide when to list, which offer to take, and how the timeline runs. That is the principle behind ValuQ: selling starts with your decision, not theirs.

The fastest sale is rarely the one with the highest offer. It is the one where the seller was ready before the buyer arrived.

Comparing agents properly before you commit is part of that readiness. ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents. You see how each agent values your home and how they plan to sell it, on one screen, before you speak to anyone.

For more on the wider picture, see our guides on how council search delays are slowing UK house sales in 2026, how long it takes to sell a house in the UK, and how to find out where your own sale is actually stuck.