It actually took more than three months: we made the offer on the first Tuesday in September, and the sale was completed on 21st December. (Compared to my sister in Melbourne who I think took about a month from offer to completion.)
My understanding is that in Australia the buyer buys the house basically at their own risk, whereas in the UK the buyer's conveyancer thoroughly investigates all kinds of things like whether planning permission was obtained for any renovations, when boilers, wood-fired stoves etc were installed and whether they have up-to-date safety certificates, whether the house lies on a floodplain, etc etc. All this stuff understandably takes a lot of time — I've been told that six months is the average. (And basically if it's not done the banks won't offer you a loan, even if they've approved you based on your income and other factors.) It's frustrating, but hopefully gives a greater measure of security.
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It actually took more than three months: we made the offer on the first Tuesday in September, and the sale was completed on 21st December. (Compared to my sister in Melbourne who I think took about a month from offer to completion.)
My understanding is that in Australia the buyer buys the house basically at their own risk, whereas in the UK the buyer's conveyancer thoroughly investigates all kinds of things like whether planning permission was obtained for any renovations, when boilers, wood-fired stoves etc were installed and whether they have up-to-date safety certificates, whether the house lies on a floodplain, etc etc. All this stuff understandably takes a lot of time — I've been told that six months is the average. (And basically if it's not done the banks won't offer you a loan, even if they've approved you based on your income and other factors.) It's frustrating, but hopefully gives a greater measure of security.