How long did it take you to buy your house?

I've heard it takes a long time here from offer to completion.

We live in a rented flat and have been offered another renewal at the same rate, through May 2020. However we have an appointment with an independent mortgage broker this week to see what could be on offer to us, as we are in a really strong position with our deposit etc. If it works out that we could start looking at places, I know we wouldn't be able to complete in the 2 months between now and our current tenancy agreement ending, but would like to get an idea of the timescale that others have gone through for buying their houses.

If things move quickly, once you have an offer accepted (if it’s all straight forward and quick), you’re looking at roughly 3 months.

Hard to say though because it all depends on if there’s any chain happening and how quickly everybody wants to/can move


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Ours didn't go smoothly.

We viewed our house on May 21, 2016.  We made an offer on May 23, and reached an agreement with the seller on May 25.  No chain, pre-approved lending... So we notified our lender, they did their inspection and the mortgage was approved by June 10th.  Enter seller's completely slow and incompetent solicitor.  Our solicitor was great (and charged us very little for what she did for us... I think it was about £1200?).  Seller's solicitor (through Purple Bricks) was terrible.  We finally completed on October 21st (we met the seller at our house on the 22nd to collect the keys and take possession).  So, from viewing to completion was five months... and that's with getting our mortgage fully approved within 3 weeks.

We had an offer accepted in October 2016 and it was completed in January.  It was slightly quicker for our son the following year, 10 weeks I think.

We did ours over Christmas and everything stopped for the holidays. 

When we bought our first house, we were in the same situation as you.  We knew we wanted to buy, but wanted to rent short term while we looked.  It was a real pain to find something suitable to rent, estate agents liked to pretend that we were asking for something completely bizarre that was therefore going to be expensive.  We ended up renting for 6 months since we did a lot of work on new house before moving in.

The good news is that you’ll not have any chain, making you attractive to sellers.

We did ours over Christmas and everything stopped for the holidays. 

When we bought our first house, we were in the same situation as you.  We knew we wanted to buy, but wanted to rent short term while we looked.  It was a real pain to find something suitable to rent, estate agents liked to pretend that we were asking for something completely bizarre that was therefore going to be expensive.  We ended up renting for 6 months since we did a lot of work on new house before moving in.

The good news is that you’ll not have any chain, making you attractive to sellers.

We're already in a rental, so at least we don't have to find one. I do not want to move unless we are buying a house or having a baby because moving from rental to rental here is such a nightmare, and our rent now is relatively low, so that's something.

No chain and 13 weeks.  Everyone kept telling us that was fast.   

I do have friends that were in a long chain and it took 9 months.  Nothing fell apart either or else it could have been worse. 

Ours took from early October till late January.  No chain, straightforward, mortgage approved immediately.  Our solicitor was great, theirs not so much.  We had to chase them and beg for everything.

The most frustrating thing  is not having any kind of firm closing date.  You just don’t know.

Ours took from early October till late January.  No chain, straightforward, mortgage approved immediately.  Our solicitor was great, theirs not so much.  We had to chase them and beg for everything.

The most frustrating thing  is not having any kind of firm closing date.  You just don’t know.

Your experience sounds similar to ours!  Our life was on hold for five months, while we waited for the seller's solicitor to do their job.

It made me consider getting my qualifications sorted here in the UK and becoming a solicitor, because apparently they can get paid to do nothing.  (Still, our solicitor was very good and thorough and worth her fee.)

The couple buying my husbands house were first time buyers so no chain there. The couple we were buying off of had built their retirement home so no chain there either. We put husband's house up for sale in Jan, beginning of April we finally got a decent offer and we accepted and immediately started looking at houses. Did four viewings, fell in love with the fourth house and put in in offer as we were getting back in the car from the viewing. Offer was accepted 3 days after (mid April). We moved in beginning of June. Our solicitors were great, we did have to chase the other solicitors a bit. I think we got really lucky at how quickly everything went, especially in regards to no chain on either side.

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We made an offer on a house in April 2012 and got the keys 4 months later in August.

Thank you everyone! Our mortgage advisor says once my visa is renewed this summer we can have a really good interest rate from Halifax so we are renewing for the full year and beginning to view places once we have an offer in principle then. Looking forward to it!!

Going through a house buy now and can give you timelines/updates if that helps? While I mentioned before that it's typically 3 months, we're aiming to exchange on this one by the end of May (so just about 2 months). Will let you know if everything sticks to timescales and if it's possible or if the way solicitors work if it's going to inevitably overrun as we think it probably will. In case documenting the process will help anybody:

So far, our offer was accepted on Friday, we've filled out forms for solicitors over the weekend as well as providing a few additional pieces of evidence for our financial adviser. We are just looking to get the survey booked (and have our buyers book a survey for our place.

We sort of did our sale bass-ackwards though as we have somebody coming to photograph our house on Friday (estate agents need photos for the listing as we are listing AFTER agreeing on a sale) and we had somebody come around to do a floor plan this past Friday.

Things are moving along as expected in the early stages..

When I bought my house in 2016, I put in an offer on 18th January, we exchanged contracts on 18th March and I picked up the keys on 23rd March. So, it was about 10 weeks from start to finish.

Have to admit though, I wasn’t expecting it to be so quick - I was prepared for it to take 3-4 months. But luckily everything went smoothly (I was a first-time buyer, so no chain on my end) .


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I'm in the thick of it all now. Our offer was accepted on 6 March. The vendors already have a place to move to so they're ready to go whenever. A friend of ours who is the next door neighbour's daughter is buying ours and she only needed a small mortgage (which has been approved) to cover part of the purchase. She's sold her house to people who are cash buyers. Our chain is pretty straightforward. We were told that the conveyancing would more than likely take from 8-10 weeks. So we're halfway in. I'm just ready for it to all be over. And I thought a 30 day escrow was torture in the US!!!