Chain free properties sell faster

Property chains cause huge inefficiencies in the property buying process, as proven by new information released today by Propertyearth.Net, the chain free and repossessions website.

These statistics show that the average chain free property on PropertyEarth.Net takes just 54 days to sell* (7.8 weeks), from notification of sale to completion. This is in comparison with a property on the open market, which takes on average of 143 days** (20.4 weeks) to complete the same process.

This figure shows that the existence of a chain leads to an increase in the property transaction time of 62.1%.

Dominic Toller, Managing Director of Propertyearth.net commented on the findings:

“The longer that a property transaction takes, the more opportunity there is for it to break down. By buying a property with no chain, buyers are minimising this risk.

“There is a dramatic difference between how long it takes to sell a property listed on Propertyearth, and those listed elsewhere which is primarily due to the motivated nature of the sellers on the website. As many of our properties are repossessions, it is in the seller’s interest to move the process along as quickly as possible, for the best possible result for both the buyer, and the seller.”

* Propertyearth.net internal data, taken from a representative sample of properties sold June- November 2009

** Number of days from Notification of Sale to Exchange = 58.8 (Hometrack, 2009) in addition to average length of conveyancing process to completion = 84 days (Philips Law, 2009) leads to an average time from Notification of Sale to Completion of 142 days.