‘Lack of speed’ ranked as the biggest problem in property transactions

A lack of speed when it comes to property transactions is the biggest problem facing estate agents, according to research conducted by property portal OneDome.

Looking at the responses to a survey sent to over 5,000 UK-based agents, OneDome asked respondents to rank the issues they face in completing property sales transactions. The majority chose ‘lack of speed of the transaction’, resulting in a 74% vote.

Over 40% of respondents also chose ‘lack of control’ as the second most important problem they face.

On top of this, nearly half of all agents who responded said revenue generation was the least important area, when assessing priorities for improvement.

OneDome points out that its findings echo those of recent research commissioned by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BIS/283). Its own survey was conducted to obtain an understanding of the challenges that recent homebuyers and sellers have faced.

59% of buyers and 57% of sellers found the process of buying and selling a home longer than they expected. When asked what could be improved in the homebuying process, the most common area identified was the speed of service, with 34% of buyers and 31% of sellers choosing this response.

OneDome states that in recent months the inefficiency of the homebuying process has become more obvious. It points out that the whole system has been close to collapse, due to rapid spikes in demand. Transaction lead times have increased from six weeks on average in the early 2000s to 20-22 weeks on average in 2021.

The results of OneDome’ s survey