Written by David Castling, Head of Intermediary Distribution, Atom bank
The housebuying process has a well-earned reputation for being slow and painful, which is why it’s troubling that things seem to be getting even more protracted.
Recent analysis from TwentyCi found that the average time to get a sale agreed so far in 2025 is 77 days, an increase of 8.2% on last year. That’s also the highest average in five years.
What’s more, the average time to exchange contracts is now 123 days – that’s about four months, from start to finish, a painfully long period of time.
This might be somewhat acceptable if the housing market in the UK were faster compared with other countries, but the opposite is true. A study last year from Moverly suggested we are the slowest of the world’s dozen most developed countries. It found that typical sales take around 179 days in the UK, compared with just 53 days in the US, 72 days in New Zealand and 90 days in Canada.
Why speed matters
There will be some cases where it’s inevitable that things take longer. When transactions are a little complicated, of course they will be a bit slower. But sales taking such a long time should be the exception, not the rule.
It’s vitally important that we get faster at helping sales reach the finishing line, for everyone’s sake. For buyers and sellers, a housing transaction is enormously stressful. However, the faster and more transparent the process is, the less stress will be involved.
There are clear benefits for brokers too. When cases move swiftly, they don’t have to deal with calls from worried clients, chasing updates and fretting over the transaction falling through. That’s time which brokers could spend more productively, reaching new clients, building their skillset, or simply enjoying some well-earned time off.
There’s the financial side too. If we speed up the process of getting these deals over the line, then brokers get paid more quickly too. A faster, smoother housebuying experience has real benefits for everyone involved.
The real life impact
It can be easy to dismiss these benefits as hypotheticals. But we have seen real life cases where being able to move quickly has made a real difference to the people involved.
We had a case last year where the broker and borrower had suffered a really painful experience with a high street bank. The borrower was an existing customer of the bank, which is why they had opted to apply for a mortgage with them, yet three months down the line there was still no offer and no real response to the application. Their house was packed up, they had a new property ready to go, yet they were at the point of the deal falling through.
The broker saw that looming deadline, and suggested taking the case to Atom bank instead, knowing the investments we had made in streamlining processes could prove decisive. And they were right, with the borrower moving from application to completion in five days, saving the deal.
This is just one example, but it showcases exactly the sort of impact the industry can have if we put the effort into getting faster.
Technology and talking
There are certain areas where it’s clear that small improvements can have big results when it comes to speed.
The first is in our industry’s use of technology. Lenders have got better on this front in recent years, but there remains a lot of work to be done. Too often, applications are held back by processes which rely on things being done manually, which could be handled automatically by technology. Open banking holds great potential on this front, which is why it’s welcome that the FCA is holding open banking mortgage tests from next month.
The smarter incorporation of technology should deliver speed benefits. But so too will improved communication. We’ve worked closely with brokers to identify where those pressure points are in the mortgage process, where potential delays can be swiftly and easily eradicated. That dialogue is invaluable in finding ways to move faster and help our customers get to completion quicker.
But that level of openness needs to be maintained throughout the process, not coming to a grinding halt once the offer is made. Everyone involved in a transaction, from the broker and borrower to the estate agent and conveyancer, needs to be on the same page and sharing an open dialogue. If communication is clear, then everyone knows what’s expected of them at each stage. That cuts out unnecessary delays and results in a faster resolution.
This isn’t about ego, or being quick for the sake of it. If we can provide a faster homebuying and selling experience, it will have a tangible impact on the quality of our customers’ lives. And now is the time for the industry as a whole to step up.
David Castling is Head of Intermediary Distribution at Atom bank
