If you are buying a home for the first time, you will hear the word conveyancing early and often. Your estate agent will ask if you have a solicitor instructed. Your mortgage broker will ask the same. And somewhere in the middle of it all you will find yourself wondering what conveyancing actually is and why it seems to take so long.
Here is a plain English explanation.
What is conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from one person to another. It starts the moment your offer is accepted and ends on completion day when the money changes hands and the keys are yours. Everything in between, the searches, the contract review, the enquiries, the exchange, is conveyancing.
You need a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to handle this on your behalf. They act in your interests, check the legal title of the property, identify any issues that might affect your ownership or the value of the property, liaise with the seller's solicitor, manage the mortgage lender's requirements, and ultimately oversee the transfer of funds and registration of your ownership at the Land Registry.
How long does it take?
Longer than most people expect. In 2026, the average residential conveyancing process in England and Wales takes somewhere between 12 and 20 weeks from offer accepted to completion. The average transaction across all property types now takes around 17 to 18 weeks, which is a significant increase from 75 days in 2007. The process has got measurably slower over the past two decades, largely because of increased regulatory requirements, busier local authorities and longer mortgage processing times.
For context:
A straightforward freehold purchase with no chain and a simple mortgage can complete in 8 to 12 weeks. A leasehold property, a longer chain, or complications with searches or title can push things to 16 to 20 weeks or more. In complex cases involving lengthy chains or problematic titles, six months is not unheard of.
If you are buying in Didcot, the property type matters. A new build at Nobel Park, for example, has no chain and a straightforward title, but can be delayed by the developer's own build programme. An older terraced house in the town centre with a leasehold flat above a shop, or a listed cottage in one of the surrounding villages, can involve significantly more legal work.
What actually happens during conveyancing?
The process breaks down into a few broad stages, most of which run partly in parallel rather than one after another.
Your solicitor first reviews the draft contract sent over by the seller's solicitor, along with the title deeds and any information the seller has provided about the property. At the same time, they order a series of searches: a local authority search covering planning history, highways and building control; an environmental search covering flood risk and contamination; a water and drainage search; and sometimes others depending on the location. Local authority searches are one of the most common sources of delay. Some councils return them in days, others take several weeks.
While searches are coming back, your solicitor will raise enquiries with the seller's solicitor if anything needs clarifying. If the seller is slow to respond, or if the questions reveal issues that need resolving, this stage can drag. It is not unusual for several rounds of enquiries to go back and forth.
Once searches and enquiries are resolved, the mortgage offer needs to be in place (if you are not a cash buyer), and both parties need to agree a completion date. Exchange of contracts is the moment the transaction becomes legally binding. Before exchange, either party can pull out without financial penalty beyond the costs incurred. After exchange, pulling out comes with serious financial consequences.
Completion follows, usually one to four weeks after exchange. On completion day your solicitor transfers the funds, the seller's solicitor confirms receipt, and the estate agent releases the keys.
What causes delays?
The chain is the single biggest cause of delays in residential conveyancing. If you are in a chain of three or four transactions, every one of those has to be ready to exchange and complete at the same time. One slow solicitor, one difficult search, one buyer who has not sorted their mortgage, and everyone waits.
Slow local authority searches are the next most common cause. Your solicitor can order these but cannot control how quickly the council processes them. Some authorities in Oxfordshire are faster than others.
Slow responses to enquiries, particularly from sellers who do not have documents readily available, add time. Issues revealed by searches or surveys that need resolving add more. And mortgage lenders, particularly when busy, can take longer than expected to issue formal offers, which holds up exchange.
What can you do to speed things up?
Instruct a solicitor as soon as your offer is accepted, not after. The earlier searches are ordered, the earlier they come back. Respond to your solicitor's requests promptly and do not let their emails sit unanswered. If you are selling a property at the same time, make sure you have documents about the property readily available, things like building regulations certificates, planning permissions, guarantees for work done, and FENSA certificates for windows.
Having your mortgage offer in place as early as possible also helps. A mortgage broker who knows the process can often get a formal offer through quicker than going direct to a lender, which removes one of the common bottlenecks before exchange.
A note on leasehold in Didcot
Some properties in Didcot are leasehold, particularly flats near the town centre. Leasehold conveyancing takes longer than freehold because it involves additional enquiries of the freeholder or management company, a management information pack which can take two to four weeks to arrive, and a review of service charge accounts, lease terms, and any planned major works. If you are buying a leasehold property, factor in an extra four to six weeks compared to a freehold purchase.
Conveyancing is not something a mortgage broker handles directly, but it is closely connected to everything we do. If your mortgage offer expires because conveyancing has dragged on, you may need to reapply. If completion is delayed, your rate lock may be at risk. Getting your mortgage sorted early, and staying in close contact with both your solicitor and your broker throughout, makes the whole process easier to manage.
Frequently Asked Questions
he average residential conveyancing process in England and Wales currently takes between 12 and 20 weeks from offer accepted to completion, with most transactions coming in around 17 to 18 weeks. Straightforward freehold purchases with no chain can complete in 8 to 12 weeks. Leasehold properties or those in longer chains typically take 16 to 20 weeks or more. The process has got slower over the past two decades and most buyers find it takes longer than they initially expected. Building in a realistic timeline from the start, and instructing a solicitor as early as possible, helps avoid unnecessary stress.