Selling your house: the process step by step

Selling a house involves a lot of separate stages that are easy to underestimate until you are actually going through them, and knowing roughly what to expect at each point makes the whole process considerably less stressful. While every sale is different, the broad sequence and rough timescales are fairly consistent across the UK.

The process starts with a valuation, ideally from more than one agent, followed by instructing the agent you choose and agreeing the marketing approach, including photography, floorplans and where the property will be listed. Once live, the property enters the marketing phase, where viewings are arranged and, hopefully, offers start coming in; this stage commonly takes anywhere from four to twelve weeks depending on your local market, how the property is priced, and the time of year you list, since demand typically slows over winter and picks up in spring.

Once you accept an offer, the agent issues a memorandum of sale confirming the agreed price and details to everyone involved, and this is the point at which conveyancing formally begins. You appoint a solicitor or licensed conveyancer, who starts the legal work: drafting and reviewing contracts, carrying out property searches with the local authority, liaising with the buyer's solicitor, and, if you are also buying, coordinating with your own onward purchase. The buyer's side typically involves a mortgage valuation or survey during this period too. Conveyancing is consistently the longest single stage of the whole process and commonly takes around eight to sixteen weeks, though it is genuinely common for it to run considerably longer, particularly for leasehold properties, where additional information has to be requested from the freeholder or managing agent, or where there is a long chain of buyers and sellers all needing to move in sequence.

Exchange of contracts is the point at which the sale becomes legally binding on both sides, deposits are paid, and a completion date is fixed; before this point, either party can generally still withdraw without formal penalty, which is part of why the lead-up to exchange can feel uncertain. Once contracts are exchanged, completion — the actual moving day, when the remaining funds transfer and the keys are handed over — typically follows within one to four weeks, with roughly a week being a common gap in practice, though the specific date is agreed between everyone in the chain and can be whatever suits all parties.

A number of things commonly cause delays along the way, and knowing about them in advance can help you plan around them. A slow chain, where one buyer or seller further along is waiting on their own sale or purchase, can hold up everyone else regardless of how quickly your own side moves. Survey findings that raise concerns can prompt renegotiation or further investigation. Missing or incomplete leasehold information, such as management company details or service charge accounts, is a particularly common source of delay for flats. And mortgage valuation or lender delays on the buyer's side are outside your control but can still push the timeline back by weeks. It is also worth understanding that a buyer typically arranges their own survey during this period, ranging from a basic condition report to a full structural survey depending on the property's age and condition, and any issues it raises are usually addressed through further negotiation on price or agreed repairs, rather than automatically ending the sale.

Taken together, the average UK house sale in 2026 commonly takes somewhere around five to six months from first listing the property to completion, though this varies considerably. A straightforward, chain-free sale with a cooperative buyer, a straightforward mortgage or a cash purchase, and no unusual complications during conveyancing can complete noticeably faster, sometimes within around three months overall, and a genuinely chain-free cash sale can in some cases complete in as little as one to four weeks once an offer is accepted. On the other end of the scale, a long chain, a leasehold property with slow-moving freeholder paperwork, or unexpected issues found during searches or survey can extend the timeline well beyond the typical range.

A sensible way to manage expectations, and to actually speed things up where possible, is to prepare as much as you can before listing: instructing a solicitor early so they can start ID checks and paperwork in parallel with marketing, having any leasehold information pack ready in advance if relevant, and responding to solicitor and buyer queries promptly once things are moving, since delays on your own side of the chain can add weeks just as easily as delays elsewhere.

This article is general information, not legal or financial advice, and actual timescales depend heavily on your specific property, buyer, chain and local market conditions. Our directory lists UK estate agents by area if you are ready to get a valuation and start the process.

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