It’s the moving milestone every seller wants to reach as quickly as possible but exchange – when signed contracts are swapped by the solicitors, making the sale legally binding – is harder to reach than ever.
New research released by TwentyEA at the end of 2025 revealed the average time to exchange in the UK is now 4.1 months, or 123 days. The duration between offer accepted and exchange lengthened by 2 days during 2025 and has leapt up frighteningly from just 91 days in 2019.
Regional variations also mean some sellers now wait even longer than the average. Those selling in Outer London and the East of England wait the longest between offer and exchange – a frustrating 4.6 months. The South East follows (4.5 months), with the South West (4.3 months) and Inner London (4.2 months) both above the UK average.
While the Government would like to slash the time it takes to exchange and has launched a consultation on reforming the buying and selling process, change is realistically years away. If you are selling a property in 2026, here’s why your transaction may stall ahead of a sale:
- Your buyers’ mortgage offer run outs: a typical mortgage offer is valid for between 3 and 6 months after the date of issue. As such, buyers frequently find their offer expires before they exchange, leaving them with no option but to reapply for a mortgage. During the wait, rates can climb or criteria change, with the borrower sometimes unable to secure finance to proceed.
- The survey reveals issues: open market buyers will not proceed without reviewing the findings of a survey. Any major flaws flagged up will become a point of negotiation. It can take time to agree on a way forward: either a reduction in the sales price or a commitment from the seller to undertake remedial work.
- The property has been down valued: a mortgage lender will send out a surveyor to assess whether the property is worth the agreed sales price. If the surveyor finds the sales price is inflated, the lender could retract the mortgage offer. This news can come as a shock to buyers and delay exchange while both parties try to negotiate.
- The chain below collapses: it only takes one link in the chain to break before delays start to build. Exchange can stall if a buyer or seller pulls out, as each transaction is co-dependent. The delays will be equal to how long it takes to find a replacement buyer to rescue the chain. With both Zoopla and Rightmove reporting decreasing buyer demand in December 2025, the wait could be lengthy.
- Solicitor-based queries go unanswered: solicitors make more queries and ask more questions than you could ever imagine. The answers are pivotal when proceeding with a sale as buyers will want the full picture before signing contracts. Outstanding issues, such as incomplete searches, missing planning permissions or title questions will need resolving before the transaction can move forwards.
- There are missing or unsigned documents: buying and selling is a legal process, so exchange depends on a full set of signed documents being held by each solicitor. It only takes one missing signature or lost piece of paper to add days to the conveyancing process. The situation will be exacerbated if the buyer is slow to respond.
Can you wait almost 7 months to move?
The entire sales process, from offer to completion, took an average of 205 days in 2025. If you can’t wait that long, a cash sale directly to a professional buyer is an attractive alternative.
How to exchange within a week (and completed within a month)
Open Property Group has an average ‘offer to completion’ timeframe of just 28 days, giving vendors assurance that their sale will not be delayed. For those who need to sell house fast, we can arrange completion within 7 working days, guaranteeing no delayed exchange.
We drastically reduce the average time to exchange because
Contact Open Property Group if you are frustrated with how long it’s taking you to reach exchange or if you need to sell a house quickly in the coming weeks.
