How long from offer to exchange, and why chains stall

Everyone says “it’s with the other side”. Weeks pass, the mortgage offer’s expiry date gets closer, and nobody can say what is actually holding things up. A chain moves at the speed of its slowest link, and the first job is to find it.

How long it takes: the official figures

Official guides give only rough timings, and they don’t agree, because they measure different things:

• GOV.UK says selling a home takes about 5 months on average, and longer if you’re part of a chain.
• The government’s How to sell a home guide (last updated in 2019) suggests approximately 12 weeks from sale agreed to moving in.
• The government’s latest figure, in its June 2026 reform roadmap, is that once an offer is accepted it takes around 120 days on average to complete, a journey around 60% longer than it was in 2007. The same roadmap says around one in 3 transactions fall through.

None of these figures separates offer-to-exchange from exchange-to-completion. The dates themselves are agreed between the parties, and the government’s guide says the completion date must be agreed by everyone in a chain. What you can do is ask each person responsible for their expected date, write it down, and chase the day after it passes.

The six stages, and who drives each

Knowing your stage tells you who to chase. The line at the top of this page marks the stages the kit’s chain page covers.

1. Sale agreed. The offer is accepted subject to contract and the agent issues a memorandum of sale. Both sides instruct conveyancers; the seller fills in the TA6 and TA10 forms (TA7 if leasehold). Driven by the agent, both conveyancers and the seller.
2. Searches. The buyer’s conveyancer orders searches, usually local authority, water and drainage, and environmental (GOV.UK). Driven by the buyer’s conveyancer.
3. Enquiries. The buyer’s conveyancer asks about the title, searches, mortgage, property and transaction, sometimes at the last minute (GOV.UK; MHCLG). Driven by both conveyancers and the seller.
4. Mortgage offer. The lender values the property and, if satisfied, issues a formal offer. Driven by the buyer, broker and lender.
5. Exchange. Both sides sign and swap contracts; the buyer pays the deposit. The deal becomes legally binding.
6. Completion. The money moves, the seller’s mortgage is paid off and the keys are released.

Where sales get stuck

• Searches waiting at a local authority. Ask for the date they were ordered and the date promised.
• Leasehold information from the freeholder or managing agent. Ask when it was requested and what was paid; your conveyancer can chase the managing agent directly.
• A mortgage offer waiting on the valuation, or on a condition.
• Enquiries raised late or answered slowly. Ask for a list of every outstanding enquiry and whose desk it is on.
• Someone selling for another person, through probate, a power of attorney or a Court of Protection application, which adds steps.
• A link with no buyer. Then nothing else matters until it has one.

Open and closed chains

The government’s guide defines a chain as linked transactions where the seller of one home is the buyer of another. It starts with a buyer who isn’t selling, such as a first-time buyer, and ends with a seller who isn’t buying. A chain is closed when every buyer has found a buyer for their own home, and open when one or more is still waiting to sell, which can add significant delay. The longer the chain, the more potential for delays.

Find the blocker

“It’s with the other side” is not an answer; a named link, a named item and a date is. Ask your agent, in writing and by a date, for each link: whether its owner has a buyer, whether that buyer’s mortgage offer has been issued, whether the searches are back, what enquiries are outstanding and who owes each answer, and the date that party says it could exchange. The earliest date in that list is not your exchange date. The latest one is.

And don’t be the weak link yourself. The government’s guide says to have your documents in order, sign and return paperwork promptly, and answer queries from your agent and conveyancer quickly.

Ways to unblock a chain

• Agree a target exchange date across the chain, when everyone is nearly ready but nobody is leading. It costs nothing and turns vague delays into missed dates everyone can see.
• Contact the slow link’s agent directly, courteously, when one link is behind and its agent isn’t relaying.
• Move out and rent, or bridge, when your buyer is ready but your purchase isn’t, or the reverse. Bridging loan interest is high; check the full cost first (Citizens Advice).
• Set a deadline, then relist or look again, when a link has no buyer and no realistic prospect of one.

What if your mortgage offer expires before completion?

Every mortgage offer has an expiry date, and a stalled chain is how a sale drifts past it. The kit treats it as a date that can’t move: when it is at risk, act today, not this week. As the kit puts it, your mortgage offer expiry and any deadline in the chain “decide how much time you really have”.

1. Find the date and write it down. It is on your offer letter. Put it on your sale snapshot (page 5) beside the target exchange and completion dates, so every decision is checked against it.
2. Ask your broker or lender now, in writing, what happens if completion slips past the expiry date, what your options are, and the cost of each, including the cost of applying again. Ask while the date is still weeks away and you have choices. Template T04 has this message, with a version for a seller who is also buying.
3. Check it against the chain. When a target exchange date is proposed for the whole chain (T05), check it leaves you room before your offer expires, and ask each link for its date in writing (T11).
4. Buyers: check it before you exchange. The kit’s buyer checklist (page 20) asks you to confirm that your mortgage offer is issued, covers the price, has its conditions met, and doesn’t expire before completion.
5. Count the cost when you weigh your options. If you are deciding between accepting a lower offer and starting again, a new mortgage offer is part of the cost of starting again, along with the months of waiting.

The kit’s Walk-away tab asks for the months left on your mortgage offer and the cost of a new one (page 21), and flags whether your offer would expire before a new completion. In its Example 2, Jo’s offer expires in three months and a new one would cost about £1,500; a relaunch is estimated at 8.6 months to a new completion, so that cost counts against relisting. In a close call, the kit adds, a mortgage offer that expires before the expected completion is a real cost even when the averages look level.

Will the reforms speed this up?

Not for a sale happening now. The government’s June 2026 roadmap plans sales packs prepared before listing and, later, binding conditional contracts, but both need new laws, to come “when parliamentary time allows”. Until new laws are passed and in force, an accepted offer in England and Wales stays non-binding until exchange. The government has published research on reservation agreements, and plans to finish moving local land charges, part of the local search, to a central HM Land Registry register by 2028; that may help future sales, not yours.