This is how long house sales are taking to complete in our area

HG2 has the longest house-sale completion times in our area. IMAGE: Google.

For a sale started this week, that would imply a completion date some time in the second half of September.

Average completion times vary considerably across the post-code areas that cover the circulation areas of the Harrogate Advertiser series of newspapers.

The area with longest completion times is HG2 – south and south-east Harrogate, including Starbeck. House sales here are taking an average of 132 days, or almost 19 weeks, to complete.

YO51, Boroughbridge and surrounds, has the shortest house-sale completion times in our area. IMAGE: Google

By contrast, property transactions in YO51, around Boroughbridge, are taking just 99 days, or just over 14 weeks, to complete.

Falling in the middle, with completion times close to the regional average, are HG1 (north and central Harrogate), HG4 (Ripon and Masham), and LS21 (the Washburn Valley), all with 123 days.

HG5 (Knaresborough) and HG3 (Nidderdale) are also close to the average with 125 and 126 days respectively, as are LS24 (Tadcaster) and LS23 (Boston Spa), with 119 and 120 respectively.

At the speedier end of the spectrum are LS22 (Wetherby, 114 days) and LS17 (includes Huby, North Rigton and Harewood, 117 days),

The data come from an online tool from house buying firm Property Solvers, which analysed over 580 property sales across our circulation areas between May 2020 and May 2021. The sale times are calculated from aproperty’s initial listing on Rightmove to the day it is marked as officially ‘sold’ at HM Land Registry.

Ruban Selvanayagam, co-founder of Property Solvers, said: “Although buyer demand hasn’t waned over the course of the pandemic, the length of time for transactions to complete has certainly lengthened. Operational activity has still pretty much continued, but the home sales industry – like many others – has had to learn to adapt over the last year. Many solicitors, mortgage brokers and other professionals in our sector have been working from home, which has often resulted in administrative and other operational delays.

“However, with positive news around the vaccine roll-out, as more people gradually return to offices and agencies, we’re cautiously optimistic about things picking up over the course of the year.”