Properties in the north of England take the longest to sell with Sunderland, Rochdale, South Shields and North Shields spending the largest number of days on the market, new research shows.
But there is a slowdown in the time it takes to sell in part of London, particularly once popular central locations such as Knightsbridge, Westminster and Vauxhall.
A property spends an average of 295 days on the market in Sunderland, 292 days in Rochdale and 275 days in South Shields, according to the research from Quick Move Now and Home.co.uk.
In North Shields it is 269 days on average and in Bangor in North Wales it is also 269 days while in Darlington it is 259 days and in Oldham 245 days, the research also shows.
In contrast the location where property sells the fastest is Bedford with an average of just 76 days on the market, followed by Bristol at just 79 days, Swindon 81 days, Waterlooville 83 days and Northampton 84 days.
But there are also some places where it is taking a long time to sell that are a surprise such as
Knightsbridge in London where property spends an average of 249 days on the market, Charing Cross at 248 days on the market, Vauxhall at 246 and the Strand 244 days.
Other parts of London also appear in the top 20 slowest seller list including Westminster at 241 days, Mayfair at 238 days and Belgravia at 237 days on the market.
Other places where property is on average for sale for under 100 days include Portslade by Sea and Basildon both at 85 days, Sutton at 90 days, Watford and Reading at 91 days, Milton Keynes and Gloucester at 93 days, Woking at 94 days, Luton at 95 and Cambridge at 96 days.
‘In the last quarter of 2016 we saw a significant shift of property slowdown from the north to the south. Increased time on market figures continue to highlight the slowdown in the Greater London and the South East,’ said Quick Move Now’s managing director Danny Luke.
‘Historically, there has always been a clear north-south divide between the best and worst places to sell, however, this steady trend is starting to diminish with Greater London making up nine of the 20 worst places to sell in March 2017,’ he added.
It is really Central London that’s suffered the worst slowdown to date but it seems to be spreading, according to Doug Shephard, director at Home.co.uk. ‘The property market in the South East has also slowed but not yet by the same extent,’ he said.
‘What’s more is that rents are following house prices and in Greater London they are now going down. Buy to let investment, wary of overbought London and the South East, is heading North in search of better yields. So if the trend continues we are going to be seeing fewer Northern locations in the worst 20 and more in London and the South East,’ he added.
