In the UK, the journey from agreeing a sale to exchanging contracts is often lengthy and fraught with uncertainty. According to the Law Society, it takes an average of six months to complete a residential property transaction, despite ongoing industry efforts to digitise and streamline conveyancing (Law Society, 2024, Home to innovation: how the UK is leading the way in digital conveyancing | The Law Society)

The surprising truth? Transactions now take longer than they did twenty years ago, despite the advances in technology and communication. This drawn-out timeline not only increases stress, risk, and expense for both buyers and sellers, but also makes it far more likely that a sale will collapse for reasons entirely unrelated to the transaction itself.

Life doesn’t pause while you wait for contracts to exchange. As the time between agreeing a sale and legally exchanging contracts has lengthened, the possibility of unexpected events impacting the transaction naturally increases. Redundancy, a change in personal circumstances, a new job, relocation, illness, growing families, children leaving home, bereavement, separation; the list goes on and any of these events can arise during the extended process. Every extra week increases the risk that something outside anyone’s control will derail the process. And this applies to both buyers and sellers: just as a buyer may be forced to withdraw, sellers can, and do change their minds, often with equally devastating consequences for the other party.

Once a sale is agreed in the UK, the property is typically marked as “Sold Subject to Contract” (SSTC), and marketing generally ceases. This status tends to discourage new enquiries and viewings. However, under the Code of Practice set by The Property Ombudsman (TPO), estate agents are legally obligated to present all offers to the seller, even if the property is already under offer, until contracts are exchanged (The Property Ombudsman, 2019, Layout 1). This requirement can lead to situations commonly referred to as “gazumping”, where a higher offer is received and accepted during the sales period, often with devastating effects on buyers.

In practice, this means a seller may have to re-market months later, losing valuable marketing time, while a buyer may face the heartbreak of losing a home after investing heavily in surveys and legal fees.

The combination of lengthy transaction times and the possibility of gazumping contributes to a high rate of failed property transactions in the UK. Research suggests that nearly one in three deals collapse, often due to gazumping, procedural delays, or issues raised by surveys (Law Society, 2024). These inefficiencies not only create stress and uncertainty but also lead to significant financial losses for both parties.

A key challenge in the current system is the absence of a defined timeframe for buyers to complete their due diligence; such as surveys, inspections, or the requirement for any issues arising from initial legal checks to be identified early. Without this structure, buyers can raise concerns or seek to renegotiate the agreed price months into the process, often triggering delays, fall-throughs, or creating forced price drops across the chain just to keep it intact. This lack of predictability creates unnecessary stress and financial risk for everyone involved.

Recognising these challenges, the UK government has proposed various reforms to streamline the home-buying process, including providing upfront property information (such as condition reports and leasehold details) and introducing legally binding contracts to prevent last-minute withdrawals. Yet, despite years of discussion, no concrete or lasting measures have been implemented to improve the process for buyers and sellers, leaving them exposed to very different risks, but with unlimited collateral consequences, in what is often one of the most significant monetary transactions they will undertake (Law Society, 2024).