What’s the average from exchange to completion? How quick can it be?

[Bankschmank]

Just that really! Is it usually a week or two?

can it be faster?

Yes usually a week or two but it can even happen same day but it dies mean the legal teams have to have it all set up to happen like that. Mortgage companies need notice to draw down funds and certain paperwork needs to be in place.

We moved just before the stamp duty holiday ended and ours was 5 days, at bit of a rush to find anything to move with as moving companies were all fully booked up.

Yes, it can also be the same day. Our exchange was 4pm Thursday, completion 10am Friday

It can be the same day - but if I was in a chain I would personally never agree to this.

My reasoning for that is that you can literally have all your possessions in a van and it can go tits up. Moving is stressful enough without that.

When we sold our flat and bought the house, people further up the chain tried to force a same day exchange and completion. I rejected it and negotiated a few working days in between. On exchange day (a Friday) our buyers went AWOL, didn't transfer funds and were completely uncontactable all weekend. They resurfaced on the Monday, paid up and we exchanged, still having a couple of days to confirm removals etc for completion.

Honestly it was so bloody stressful for everyone, but would have been far worse if we'd all been slapped with double removals fees (there would have been no recourse to make our buyers pay these as we hadn't exchanged yet!) & had to move everything back into our homes on top of it.

So I'd say a week in between, pr at least a few working days!

We just purchased a house and exchanged/completed same day. It was only us and the vendor in the chain though, and the property was empty. We're refurbishing it as well so no-one actually moved on the day.

When we bought our current house last year we exchanged on the Tuesday and completed the following day. There were 4 of us in that chain and was very stressful as we were moving over 100 miles away. Ended up being a self move as we lost our removals due to change of completion date, and couldn't get another firm as was coming to the end of the stamp duty hol.

We had to start moving stuff out before we'd exchanged as we had no other option. We physically couldn't have done it otherwise, ended up taking us 4 round trips over 5 days. Luckily my brother lived where we were moving to & had an empty garage for us to store things in until we had the keys!

This is very useful!

If we don’t lose this sale, there’s no chain - the sellers are moving in with family and we’re in rented. I also want to do work on the place, and our sellers are keen for a quick exchange / completion.

What would we need to have in place in terms of paperwork to make it happen quickly? Are mortgage companies awkward about it? (Ours is so difficult to contact at the moment, not giving me hope!)

I sold recently, top of a short chain with one other purchase. Both transactions exchanged same day, then completed 48 hours later.

At exchange everything should be lined up, because you're entering into a legally binding contract at that point, and the contract will specify the completion date. Key to that is making sure that any lenders have confirmed that funds will be released on the completion date - your solicitors should sort all this out.

Same day for us! I wouldn’t recommend though, very stressful!

When we sold we exchanged and completed on the same day but it was just that transaction. When we bought we exchanged in the Monday and completed on Friday.

Mine was the same day but I was moving from rented & to an empty house so it was just myself & the vendors in the transaction