Edinburgh is the city with the fastest selling property, while London languishes near the bottom of the pile, a new report shows.
Homes in the Scottish capital take an average 39 days to sell while at the other end of the scale in Blackpool, sellers had to wait on average 131 days, according to the latest Post Office Money and Centre for Economics and Business Research report.
London, however, was not far behind the seaside resort, with properties taking around 126 days to sell – much longer than the UK average of 102 days.
Map shows how many days it takes for top and bottom 5 properties to sell around the country
The average time to sell a home has increased by a week in the last year, rising from 96 days in 2017.
While London previously had one of the most competitive property markets, it now typically takes 11 per cent longer than the year before to shift a property.
Its expensive homes and years of price growth have been blamed for the increase in sale time with expensive properties – those that cost more than £1million – taking on average 171 days to sell, in comparison to cheaper homes, that take just 99 days.
On the other end of the spectrum, Edinburgh was closely followed by fellow Scottish city, Glasgow, as the city that had the second quickest moving property market.
Not only did properties in Glasgow only spend an average just 48 days on the market, the city also saw the fastest house price growth out of other major UK cities.
Both Scottish cities’ properties enjoyed a short time on a market due to the strong population growth which in turn increased demand for houses in the areas that already had an under-supply of homes.
It mimics data out by property portal Zoopla last month which also had Edinburgh and Glasgow as the two cities with the hottest housing market.
Edinburgh sells property the quickest, compared to other UK cities, taking on average 39 days
Ross Hunter, spokesman for Post Office Money, said: ‘Properties are taking slightly longer to sell but this doesn’t mean that interest in moving up the housing ladder is waning.
‘First-time buyers have actually increased by 12 per cent across the market in the last year alone, encouraged by the reduction made to stamp duty costs and mortgage innovation.
‘We also know that housing supply has increased significantly – the number of homes completed in 2018’s second quarter was up seven per cent in England, compared to the previous quarter, so there are more properties available to choose from for perspective buyers.’
Blackpool, despite having affordable properties, sits at the bottom of the table.
The city has the oldest average population, therefore, it is not benefitting from the recent rise in first-time buyer sales on the property market.
Luton and Bristol had the largest increase in the median time that properties spent sitting on the market, increasing by 20 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively.
Housing in both cities is deemed unaffordable, compared to other UK locations, limiting the supply of houses and increasing the time spent sitting on the market.
Property in London takes on average 126 days to sell, only homes in Blackpool take longer
Waiting: Blackpool was the city that had properties sitting on the market for the longest time
Belfast and Swansea, however, have seen the biggest drop in the time properties spend on the market at 17 and 14 days lower than last year, respectively.
There is a limited availability of properties in Belfast due to lack of supply which means that homes are therefore spending less time on the market before being purchased.
Swansea, is relatively affordable and is within an easily commutable distance to the popular city of Cardiff, meaning that demand has been sustained and has led to the reduction in time spent on the property market.
Property prices are not the only issues that buyers and sellers have to contend with.
Data collected by the Post Office and Gazeal, a property-tech provider, also discovered that 35 per cent see the sale of their property fall through within the first three weeks of the transaction.
A further 44 per cent see their sale fall through within just four weeks, which the Treasury found has cost consumers £270million a year on failed housing transactions.
Those buying and selling property in Blackpool are the most likely city to see their sale fall through, with 44 per cent of sales stopped in the first three weeks and 53 per cent of stopped sales in the first four weeks.
Almost a fifth of people have been gazumped – where a seller accepts a verbal offer on the property from a prospective buyer but later accepts a higher offer from someone else – but Sheffield buyers are the most likely to be with 35 per cent of consumers experiencing this.
However, Blackpool buyers are the least likely to be gazumped with only six per cent going through the frustrating experience.
Steve Dawkins, spokesperson for Gazeal said: ‘Most people know that getting an offer on your home is only the first hurdle in the process of selling your property.
‘As the market has remained competitive, the trend for gazundering and gazumping is rife – where previously agreed offers are later broken by one of the parties involved.
‘This has left 65 per cent of all buyers and sellers worried about whether they will make it to completion following an offer being accepted.’