How long does conveyancing actually take in 2026?

For a straightforward freehold purchase, 10 to 14 weeks from instruction to completion is a reasonable expectation in 2026. Leasehold transactions typically take 12 to 18 weeks. Both figures assume a functioning chain and no unusual title issues — in practice a significant minority of transactions take longer.

The key stages and where time is spent

Conveyancing has several distinct stages, each with its own dependencies:

• Instruction to searches returned: 3 to 6 weeks. Local authority searches typically take 1 to 4 weeks depending on the local council. Some areas are faster; others are significantly slower. Your conveyancer cannot speed up a local council.
• Enquiries raised and answered: 1 to 4 weeks. The buyer's conveyancer raises questions about the title, planning history, building regulations, and boundaries. The seller's conveyancer must obtain and respond to these. Slow responses from sellers are a common cause of delay here.
• Mortgage offer received: Variable. If the lender requires a valuation survey, the timeline depends on surveyor availability and the lender's processing time. This is outside your conveyancer's control.
• Exchange to completion: 1 to 4 weeks. Once all parties are ready, exchange of contracts is typically followed by a completion date one to four weeks later by agreement.

What causes most delays

The most common causes of delay are not conveyancer errors but structural features of the transaction:

• Chain dependencies — one party not being ready holds everyone else
• Slow local authority search turnaround
• Lender delays, particularly on complex mortgage applications
• Missing documents from sellers (planning consents, guarantees, building regs)
• Leasehold management packs — the freeholder or managing agent typically has 15 working days to respond but frequently takes longer
• Title defects requiring indemnity insurance or rectification

What conveyancers can control

A good conveyancer raises all their enquiries promptly, keeps on top of outstanding items, and communicates proactively when something is holding up progress. A poor one lets weeks pass without chasing. The HMLR error rate data on this site measures application quality — firms that submit clean applications spend less time correcting errors and can focus on progressing your matter. It is an imperfect proxy for service quality, but it is the best publicly available signal.

We cannot surface firm-level completion time data from public records — HM Land Registry Price Paid Data does not identify the conveyancer. Completion time figures cited by some comparison sites are self-reported by firms and should be treated cautiously.