Home sales are now taking 104 days to reach exchange in Great Britain, according to Connells Group, with leasehold deals proving the main drag on an already slow process. For landlords, that is not just a housing market statistic. It is a warning that selling, refinancing or reshaping a flat-heavy portfolio may take longer and fail later than expected.
Leasehold deals are stretching the market timetable
Connells said the average home exchanged in April had gone under offer 104 days earlier, making it the first April on record to break the 100-day mark. The group also found that 17 percent of homes took more than six months to get from agreed sale to exchange.
The sharpest pressure is in leasehold. Connells said the typical leasehold sale took 155 days to reach exchange, compared with 97 days for a freehold property. That 58-day gap is the widest on record.
For landlords, especially those holding flats in London and other urban markets, that matters on two fronts. First, slower sales mean longer exposure to rate changes, market moves and fall-through risk. Second, the same delays can complicate plans to sell into a softer market or recycle capital into other property types.
This follows Landlord Knowledge’s recent report on leasehold reform pressure for flat investors, which argued that legal and management complexity is becoming part of the investment case, not just an admin nuisance. It also connects with Landlord Knowledge’s coverage of service charge and shared ownership friction. The latest Connells data suggests those wider block-level issues are still showing up where it hurts most – the ability to complete a deal.
Late-stage failures are adding another risk for landlords
Connells also found more deals are collapsing later in the process. Nearly one in four fall-throughs now happens more than three months after sale agreed, and leasehold buyers are more likely than freehold buyers to pull out. The practical problem is obvious: the longer a sale drags on, the more time there is for mortgage pricing, survey issues, management pack delays or buyer nerves to kill it.
There is a contrarian point here for landlords weighing disposals. A slow market does not just mean waiting longer for completion. It can also mean false certainty, where a deal looks safe on paper but remains fragile for months. That makes pricing, buyer selection and document readiness more important than ever.
Connells has published its latest analysis of exchange delays.
What this means for landlords
- If you plan to sell a flat: budget for a longer timeline and get management pack requests moving early.
- If you need an exit this year: choose buyers carefully and do not treat an agreed offer as the finish line.
- Watch for: how lenders react if drawn-out transactions expose more buyers to rate changes.
- If you own freeholds and leaseholds: expect the sales experience to differ sharply between the two.
- Bottom line: leasehold friction is no longer just an irritant – it is a material transaction risk for landlords.
Editor’s view
Landlords often focus on sale price and forget to price the delay. That is becoming harder to justify. In a leasehold-heavy market, time itself is turning into a cost line.
Author: Editorial Team – UK landlord & buy-to-let news, policy, and finance
Published: 15 May 2026
Sources: Connells Group
Related reading: Leasehold reform bill puts flat investors on notice
