Published 2026-07-12 · data as of 2026-07-15 · by Flatscout
Across 65,212 tracked sales, the median listing reached Sold STC in 32 days — barely slower than rentals let, which surprises almost everyone.
Sold STC (subject to contract) is the moment a sale is agreed — the listing's real 'gone' point, months before Land Registry records completion. Flatscout tracked 65,212 sale listings from first appearance to Sold STC. The result challenges the assumption that sales move an order of magnitude slower than rentals.
| Measure | Days |
|---|---|
| Fastest quarter (25th percentile) | 22 |
| Median | 32 |
| Slowest quarter (75th percentile) | 43 |
A median of 32 days to agree a sale, versus 28 days to agree a let. The sale process after Sold STC — conveyancing, searches, mortgage — is what takes months; finding a buyer for a sensibly priced home takes about a month. Note the survivorship in this framing: these are listings that DID sell. Overpriced stock lingers, gets cut (see our price-cuts analysis), or is withdrawn and relisted.
The quickest boroughs to reach Sold STC in our tracked set are Havering (median 32.9 days over 259 sales) and Waltham Forest (33.6 days over 246 sales) — affordable outer-London family-home markets where correctly priced stock clears close to the national median despite bigger ticket sizes. Volume-rich inner boroughs trail slightly, dragged by the premium tail that takes months to shift.
We measured the gap between Flatscout first observing a sale listing and its status changing to Sold STC, for changes within 365 days of listing. Sold STC is agent-reported and reversible (sales fall through and return to market — we track that too, as 'Relisted'). Detection lag from our crawl cycle is a few hours at most.