With the UK housing market busier than any other time in recent memory, selling a home seems to take longer than ever before, according to property purchasing specialist HBB Solutions.
To illustrate this point HBB Solutions has created a list of other activities that can be completed in the same amount of time it takes to sell a home.
In the UK, it currently takes an average of 129 days, or 4.2 months, to sell a home, from the moment a property is put on the market to when contracts of sale are signed.
This means it takes longer to sell a house than it takes to walk the entire length of Great Britain. Walking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, including the necessary periods of rest, takes an estimated 90 days, or three months. A person could walk all the way there and halfway back in the time it takes to sell their home.
It also takes longer to sell a house than it does to complete an around-the-world cruise. To fully circumnavigate the planet, stopping to enjoy various points of interest along the way, it takes 120 days, or four months. All the while, the frustrated home seller is still waiting for their sale to be completed.
It takes longer to sell a house than it does to learn a foreign language, notoriously one of the most difficult tasks an adult can undertake.
To learn what is classed as a Group 1 (easy) foreign language, such as German, French, Italian, or Spanish, takes around 480 hours, or 20 days. Broken down to 5-hours of learning a day, this works out at between three-four months, meaning a seller can have absolutely no grasp of Italian when they list their property and be fairly fluent by the time it is sold!
The timeline for selling a house is longer than the average waiting list for a Michelin-starred restaurant. To get a table at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, guests are waiting for an average of 3.5 months.
Finally, it takes longer to sell a house than it does to fly to the moon and back 21 times.
Managing director of HBB Solutions, Chris Hodgkinson, said: “The UK’s property transaction process is notoriously protracted and despite a huge degree of technological innovation in recent years, many aspects remain reliant on archaic practices and processes.
“As a result, homebuyers are still subjected to a lengthy timeline when looking to sell their home and, when you consider you could fly to the moon and back 21 times or learn a foreign language in the same timeframe, it really puts it into perspective.
“But it’s not just the time it takes to sell that needs addressing. The fact that a sale can collapse right up until the final moments is also a source of great stress and anxiety for home sellers and it’s fair to say that both issues seriously need addressing.”
