Let’s talk about Christmas. Somebody has to mention it. After all, many of today’s house hunters are hoping to be moved before Christmas.
It’s a question we are getting asked a lot. Can we get moved before Christmas? People have hopes and dreams. They want to open their gifts in their new home and invite their family around for dinner which has been cooked in their kitchen.
The good news is that properties are selling quicker than pre-pandemic, with an average of 55 days to secure a buyer, down from 62 in July 2019. At JDG we are still seeing some properties sell in days. 12 of the sales we have agreed on so far this month have all found buyers in under 2 weeks, however, for the sake of this article, let’s work on the UK average of 55 days.
55 days from now takes us to Monday 13th November. The reality is that at this point, it really is too late for the Christmas move as the average conveyance still takes 14-16 weeks.
However what if you found a buyer this week? Is there a chance to get moved? There is but it is slim and it really comes down to how fast your conveyancer can move and the property chain. Ideally, you would be buying an empty home. In 2019, 55% of all sales completed within 12 weeks. However, in 2022, this dropped to just 28% of sales across the entire UK. It’s tracking at the same rate this year.
The positive news is that it is still possible. 12 weeks brings us to December 12th. 13 weeks brings us to December 19th. After that, do you really want to move so close to Christmas???
Thanks for reading
Michelle x
