Shared ownership flat selling timeline?

leolioness1984

Have just had an offer placed on my shared ownership flat :j, how long does it take to sell these types of properties? Both buyer and my solicitors are in place and they have been accepted by the housing association. As we are going into rented property I assume there's no point in looking for a rented place until we actually exchange contracts? (We didn't want to start looking sooner in case buyer decides to pull out then we are liable for both properties).

chanz4

6 weeks plus I would imagine

Elfbert

It really depends on how simple the sale is/how fast the solicitors are/how 'on it' the buyers are with regards to chasing/returning info etc.

I offered on my SO flat in Jan, finally completed in July!! That was a combo of the seller's sols being v slow, and HSBC/Countrywide being the most useless bunch of w*nkers ever!

Maybe do some gentle questioning of your buyers, see if they have a date they have to be 'in' - have they handed in notice on a rental place, for instance? Or are they quite flexible? You can always agree to have a certain time between exchange and completion - two weeks, for instance, or even longer, if your buyers are happy with that. This would give you time to find a new place. But if your buyers have to be out of their current property, they might push hard for a swift exchange/completion!

You could definitely look for a rental place, as some will be advertised 2 months before they're going to be vacant. Just don't fall in love with anywhere

Kynthia

Ours took five months even though it was a chain free sale to a cash buyer who was buying 100% of the property. This was with everyone pushing hard too, but having three sets of solicitors involved just slowed everything down. Some of the delay was caused by needing to change the deeds to reflect complete ownership which probably isn't the case for you. So I wouldn't suggest looking for rentals until your solicitor says you're near to exchange, and don't sign up for somewhere until you've exchanged.

Loopy28

My first house was shared ownership. It was about 3 months from applying to buy the share to actual completion. The owner of the house was buying another property so there was a bit of a chain but it did not seem to take any longer than normal.