How Long Searches Take When Buying a House (2025)

In this post we will discuss how long property searches take when buying a house. Before we dive into that, let’s quickly cover off what searches are, who is responsible for conducting them, and what the searches are actually searching for.

What are property searches?

Property searches are investigations carried out when purchasing a property in the UK. Searches are conducted to gather crucial information about the property’s legal, regulatory, and environmental status. They help ensure that there are no hidden issues or potential complications that could impact the property’s value or the buyer’s plans for it.

Who is responsible for property searches?

In the UK, property searches are conducted by solicitors or licensed conveyancers who are hired (and paid for) by the buyer of the property. These legal professionals have the expertise and access to the necessary databases to perform the required searches and gather relevant information about the property.

Normally solicitors and conveyancers will either do the property searches directly themselves by requesting the information from the local authority, or they will hire a specialist search company to help. This is important for buyers to know because the speed by which you get results for your searches can depend on the route taken.

Hiring a search company costs more, but is normally the fastest way to get results. Always check with your conveyancer which option they plan to go with.

What do property searches include?

Local authority searches

• Scrutiny of planning-related matters
• Assessment of building control matters
• Examination of potential highways concerns
• Evaluation of ongoing rail schemes
• Analysis of pollution-related issues
• Determination of listing status, conservation area inclusion, or tree preservation orders
• These searches aim to unearth any ongoing or planned construction work nearby

Environmental searches

• Appraisal of flood-related matters
• Study of potential landslide risks
• Assessment of subsidence possibilities
• Evaluation of potential contamination of the land
• Disclosure of nearby gas hazards or landfill sites

Water and drainage searches

• Connection to public water supply and sewerage systems
• Location of public sewer lines and drainage pipes
• Necessity of water company approval for property extensions
• Operational insights into drainage systems and responsible water company

Land Registry Searches

This search involves reviewing the current ‘title register’ and ‘title plan’ records stored within the Land Registry. The purpose is to validate and confirm the present ownership status of the property being offered for sale i.e. Is the seller the owner and does he/she have the right to sell it?

How long do searches take?

The time to do most types of searches is relatively predictable. The wild card in the bunch is local authority searches.

Local authority searches have the potential to be a major bottleneck and to slow down your house buying process. The speed of local authority searches depends on where the house you plan to buy is located, and which local authority is responsible for doing the searches.

Some local authorities are very fast while others are extremely slow.

How long do local authority search take (2025)

The below table outlines the speed at which each local authority will return searches, based on May 2025 data. Check the relevant local authority in the table below to learn how quick they are.

If they are slow, you can reduce these search times by using a specialist search company.

If your property purchase has a slow council, or any property being bought within the chain is in a slow council catchment area, this could slow things down for the whole chain and risk chain breaking. In fact various studies on property chains revealed that between 31% and 35% of all chains fall through.

Pro tip: If you or anyone in your chain needs to sell a house fast because of a broken chain, Property Rescue can buy the property for cash in under 2 weeks, without doing any searches. Just get in touch for a no obligation quote.

The table below lists all UK councils and how long each takes to do searches, so you can look-up your council. These are ordered alphabetically.

The data in the above table comes from here.

The UK average of all councils is just over 15 business days which isn’t bad, but it’s a day slower vs last years average.

Fastest Councils for Property Searches

The top-performing councils demonstrate remarkable efficiency in turning around property searches, with some taking just a matter of days:

• Isles of Scilly – 0 business days
  This stands out as a statistical anomaly or possibly a reflection of a highly streamlined digital system in a very low-volume jurisdiction. Given the small population and property market size, this result suggests that searches can be completed almost instantaneously.

• York, Sutton & North Devon – 3 business days
  These councils represent a strong benchmark for efficiency. In fast-paced housing markets, being able to complete this stage in under a week gives buyers and solicitors a significant advantage — potentially shaving weeks off the transaction process.

• Brighton and Hove – 4 business days
  As a busy urban area, Brighton and Hove’s performance is particularly impressive. This may reflect modernised digital systems and proactive processing by the local authority.

What all these areas have in common is either a smaller volume of transactions (like Isles of Scilly and North Devon) or effective systems in place for managing high volumes efficiently (e.g., Brighton and Sutton). For professionals seeking predictable turnaround times, these councils set the gold standard.

Slowest Councils for Property Searches

At the opposite end of the scale, several councils take more than a month — and in some cases, over two months — to return search results:

• Hackney – 99 business days
  By far the slowest, Hackney’s performance is a serious outlier. At nearly 20 calendar weeks, this presents a significant delay for anyone involved in a property transaction. The causes may be administrative backlog, lack of digital infrastructure, or high demand in a busy London borough.

• Newcastle upon Tyne & Redbridge – 46 business days
  These councils still take over nine weeks, which is well above the national average. Such long timelines can jeopardise property chains or result in buyers incurring additional costs such as mortgage offer extensions.

• Tewkesbury – 51 business days
  Despite not being a major metropolitan area, Tewkesbury’s long turnaround hints at systemic issues, such as staffing constraints or outdated processing methods.

• Harrogate, Isle of Wight & Tamworth – 41 business days
  These councils, though geographically dispersed, share similar lag times. This might indicate a need for digital investment or operational reform.

Are searches mandatory?

Yes and no. Searches are not a legal requirement, but they are required by mortgage lenders. Since most people buy homes with money borrowed from the bank, searches will be required. However, cash house buyers do not need to do searches since they are not borrowing anything.

If you live somewhere with a slow local authority, and you are looking to sell a house quickly, you can skip local authority searches entirely by selling directly to us.  We can buy any property for cash in under 2 weeks, without doing any searches. Just get in touch for a no obligation quote.