How long for a sale to show on Land Registry?

MoneySaver1982

Hi everyone

This is my first post here - I have tried the search function and not found the answer to my question, but apologies in advance if this is something which has already been discussed - if so would be grateful if someone can point me in the direction of that discussion.

Basically, I'm wondering if anyone knows what is the normal amount of time between completion and a sale appearing on the land registry (and on sites that provide info about house prices in your area which I understand are based on land registry information).

To explain why I'm asking, we are currently in the process of purchasing a new-build home, which was down-valued by our mortgage lender. The company we are purchasing from is attempting to persuade us to offer above our lender's valuation and one of the tricks they are using is to give us a list of recent completions in the same development and the price they sold for.

They've provided a list of around ten sales (it's a fairly small development), several of which date back to May or June this year, and yet only one of these appear when I search on house price sites. At first glance it seemed odd to me that a sale wouldn't be registered even six months after completion, so I wanted to find out if this is normal or if it might suggest something suspect about the information they've given us - perhaps that they had a buyer reserve a property at that time and at that price but haven't yet completed or something similar? They have definitely claimed the figures relate to completions though.

I'd be really grateful if someone with more experience of this than me could provide some information. Thanks in advance!

CloudCuckooLand

Sites like www.houseprices.co.uk are showing figures for end-September sales, at the moment. Rightmoves figures generally seem to be upto a month behind them.

You could pay £4 or so to get LR details for a specific house, which may help indicate if they are lying or not.

Richard_Webster

Remember the figures given at the Land Registry are the figures before any discounts have been given. Particularly in cases where SDLT is not payable and it doesn't really matter to the buyer a builder can cheerfully sell a property to a FTB for say £200K on paper but actually give a £20K discount - mortgage lender has to be told and will only lend on the discounted figure - but it looks lovely at the the Land Registry. Builder then uses this as a way of trying to get you to pay an actual £185-£190K for a similar house - "Look you are getting it cheaper!"

However my warning to all buyers of new property is that what other houses on the new estate went for is not the true guide - you should be looking at the prices of similar second hand 10-20 year old houses in the area. In 5 years time nobody is going to pay any more for a 5 year old house than for one that is similar but 15-25 years old. OK you might pay a little more for a brand new house, but often the extra being asked is well over the top.

PottyHouse_2

I've noticed that some Sales NEVER show up on the usual house price index sites (Zoopla, Rightmove, Mouseprice, OurProperty.co.uk) and I don't know why - there have been a few houses sold in my area that I would love to know how much were paid for them but have never been able to find out.

Am nosey, but not enough to pay £4 a time !!!!

London28UK

The house next door to mine was sold in March 2010, but the completion date / new people moved in Sept 9th, but it is not showing on Land Reg or any of the other sites yet.

PasturesNew

If they're bought as investments, by BTL landlords they won't show up if they've been bought through a company.

And, the data can be delayed getting to LR to get onto the figures - there's a deadline that's not "immediate" to get the data to them.

And then there's mistakes.

ab7167

About mistakes - we bought a house in April this year, it's just shown up on nethouseprices - but the price is not correct! It's a good deal less than we paid. I've checked the completion statement and we paid correct stamp duty - so is this a problem or not? There was nothing 'odd' about the purchase, it's not new build, no gifted deposits, solicitors fees or anything. We agreed a price, paid a deposit from proceeds of sale of previous house, got a mortgage for the balance and handed it all over on completion day.

Do I need to worry? Phoned solicitor, he said he'd call back but didn't. Can't get him until Monday now.

poppysarah

Just tell them you're not going to pay more than the valuation and that if they persist you'll go and buy elsewhere.