Homes in Bristol and Edinburgh sell the quickest while those in Swansea and Liverpool take the longest to sell, according to a new research.
A study of 20 major UK cities by Post Office Money Mortgages (POMM) shows that it takes 91 days to sell the average UK property.
Houses in Bristol take 51 days to sell, while it takes 53 days for the average home in Edinburgh. A Swansea home spends 100 days on the market, while a property in Liverpool lags at 108 days.
John Willcock, head of POMM, warned that house price rises do not guarantee a successful sale. He said while attractive asking prices prompt many people to put their house for sale, this creates more competition.
He continued, “Even property hotspots such as London are not necessarily guaranteed to sell quickly”.
Thanks to strong price growth, Brighton and London have seen the sharpest increase in time spent on the market (24 per cent and 20 per cent respectively) as more properties are listed.
Average house prices have risen by 8.7 per cent across the UK in the year to June 2016, but demand and supply have fallen recently.
“Despite these rising prices, our report indicates that the housing market has slowed recently, with falls in both demand and supply,” Mr Willcock said.
“In part, this reflects the introduction of a stamp duty surcharge on second homes at the beginning of April.”
He predicts that the slowdown will ‘intensify’ into the New Year, as ‘economic uncertainty’ adds to the pressures faced by the housing market. He expects that some local property markets will be hit ‘significantly’ as weaker demand coincides with more houses being put up for sale.
