How long does conveyancing take — and what is actually happening?
England & Wales · Last updated August 2026
The honest answer: for a freehold purchase with a small or no chain, typically three to five months from accepted offer to completion. Leasehold flats, long chains and slow councils push it longer. The harder question — the one that keeps buyers up at night — is what’s actually happening during all that time, and whether your silence is the normal kind.
Where the time really goes
- Searches (2–8 weeks, varies wildly by council). Ordered early, but some local authorities take weeks to respond, and nothing much can conclude until they’re back.
- Enquiries (often the longest stage). Your solicitor asks written questions about the contract pack; the seller’s side gathers answers — some from the seller, some from a management company or the council. Each round trip can take days or weeks, and there are usually several rounds.
- Your mortgage offer (2–6 weeks). Application, valuation booking, underwriting. Usually runs in parallel, but a down-valuation or a document request can stall it.
- Leasehold extras. A management pack from the freeholder or managing agent is often needed, they can be slow to produce it, and its contents frequently trigger more enquiries. Add weeks, sometimes months.
- The chain. Everything above is happening in every link. The chain exchanges together, so it moves at the pace of its slowest member — who might be three links away from you. See why purchases fall through.
Quiet weeks: normal or a problem?
Most of conveyancing is asynchronous paperwork between people who don’t update you unless something needs you. A quiet fortnight during searches or enquiries is usually just the process running. The pattern that deserves attention is silence after a handover moment — searches came back but nothing followed; enquiries were answered but no confirmation arrived; your mortgage offer was issued weeks ago and nobody has mentioned exchange.
The useful chasing question is specific: not “any update?” but “which enquiries are still outstanding, and who are we waiting on?” A specific question gets a specific answer, and a specific answer tells you whether the purchase is moving.
What you can do to keep it moving
- Return everything your solicitor asks for the same day — ID checks, signed forms, source-of-funds evidence.
- Ask your solicitor to order searches immediately on instruction, not after the contract pack arrives.
- Book the survey in week one; a late survey that raises issues restarts negotiation late.
- Watch your mortgage offer’s expiry date against the likely completion date — extensions take time too.
- Keep a running list of what’s outstanding and who holds each item; most delays hide in ambiguity about whose turn it is.