TwentyEA data reveals how exchange times vary across the UK

Anyone who has spent a career in conveyancing knows that the phrase "average transaction time" hides a great deal. A sale in one part of the country can reach exchange in a fraction of the time it takes in another, and the reasons have far more to do with local process, tenure mix and search turnaround than with any individual firm's diligence. Data published by TwentyEA on exchange times across the UK puts numbers to something practitioners have long observed anecdotally, and those numbers are worth paying attention to.

Why regional variation matters more than the national average

The national figure is a useful headline and very little else. If your firm operates predominantly in one region, or handles chains that cross regional boundaries, the national average will either flatter or unfairly damn your performance. What matters is the benchmark that reflects the conditions your files actually sit in: the local authority you are waiting on, the proportion of leasehold in your caseload, and whether the properties you deal with routinely trigger additional enquiries such as mining, coastal erosion or flood risk.

Once you know where your region sits, two practical uses open up. The first is client expectation setting. The second is diagnosis of where your own process loses time against the local norm.

Setting expectations that survive contact with reality

Most client complaints about delay are not really about the delay. They are about the gap between what the client was told at instruction and what actually happened. A client told "around eight weeks" who exchanges at sixteen feels badly served. A client told the honest regional figure, with an explanation of what could extend it, generally does not.

Regional benchmarks give you something better than a hopeful estimate. You can say, with evidence behind you, that transactions of this type in this area typically reach exchange within a given window, that leasehold adds a known amount, and that the single biggest variable is how quickly third parties respond. That conversation costs ten minutes at instruction and saves hours of chasing calls later.

It also helps with referrers. Estate agents who understand why a particular postcode runs slower are less likely to apply pressure that helps nobody, and more likely to keep sending work to a firm that is straight with them.

Where the time actually goes

Break a typical transaction into its component waits and the picture usually resolves into a handful of pinch points: getting the contract pack out, search returns, mortgage offer, and management pack on leasehold. Of those, search ordering is the one most directly within the firm's control and the one most often left until later than it needs to be.

The arithmetic is unforgiving. If a local authority in your area is running at three weeks and you order on day fourteen rather than day two, you have added the best part of a fortnight to the file for no benefit. Multiply that across a caseload and the effect on your average exchange time is significant. Firms that consistently beat their regional benchmark almost always share the habit of ordering searches on the day the file opens, before the contract pack has even been assembled.

The objection is always the same: the risk of abortive spend if the transaction falls through. It is a fair concern, but it should be weighed against the cost of a slower pipeline, more chasing, and a higher fall-through rate caused by the delay itself. Transactions that drag are the ones most likely to collapse. Ordering early is, in part, a fall-through mitigation strategy.

Turning benchmarks into practice

A sensible approach is to record your own exchange times by region, tenure and referral source, then compare them with the published regional figures. Where you are slower, work backwards through the file to find the wait that explains it. Where you are faster, understand why, and see whether the practice transfers.

It is also worth tracking search turnaround separately by authority, because the variation between neighbouring councils can be substantial and it changes over time. Knowing which authorities are currently slow lets you flag those files at instruction rather than discovering the problem three weeks in.

Benchmarks are not a target to be hit. They are a diagnostic tool, and the firms that use them well treat them as a prompt to look harder at their own process.

If search turnaround is where your files lose time, see how quickly Searchpoint can get your orders away.