A surge in property sales in the city has led to delays in the length of time it takes to complete home purchases, with Plymouth City Council saying it has had to deal with "unprecedented" levels of demand.
Homebuyers in Plymouth now face among the longest delays to purchasing property in the 海角视频, with Plymouth City Council taking on average 36 days to complete a local land search.
A Freedom of Information request by Compare My Move, made to more than 400 councils across the 海角视频 saw Plymouth City Council take the longest, on average, to complete the land search. That is despite the city being home to one of the largest offices of HM Land Registry.
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But Plymouth City Council, which was one of the 171 councils to respond to the FOI request, saw an 80% increase in the number of searches undertaken over the last year – suggesting the delays are down to an influx of new transactions.
And the authority has said it has been dealing with "six times" the normal level of demand, with new staff brought in and six-day working weeks implemented in an effort clear the backlog.
The authority processed an average of 925 local land searches over the last year, which authors of the survey said is an 80% rise in the past year.
As well as the Stamp Duty holiday announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the rise has been linked to a surge in interest for properties in Devon and Cornwall since the pandemic began as people enjoy more flexible working arrangements.
Cabinet member for customer services, culture, leisure and sport, Cllr Mark Deacon said: “The Land Charges team have seen an unprecedented level of demand for searches following the Government announcements to freeze Stamp Duty.
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“We had expected this pressure to reduce after March 2021 when the freeze was originally anticipated to end, however, this has since been extended until the end of September.
“The team have continued to work through a difficult pandemic with no impact on performance, we continue to turnaround the same volume of searches, however, the current delay in turnaround times is due to a significant increase in demand, around six times the normal levels.
“With reference to the stamp duty freeze, it has been difficult for the council to forecast demand and provide additional temporary resource as this was originally only a temporary measure that has since been extended at various times.
“Conveyancing is a technical role that requires a high degree of accuracy, this makes it challenging to recruit temporary skilled staff, so Plymouth City Council staff have been working additional hours and increased working days from five to six days a week to achieve the current 40 working day completion timescales.”
Across the country, the overall length of transactions have been at their longest in recent memory thanks to the surge in demand prior to the end of the Stamp Duty holiday – increasing from an average of 96 to 124 days.
As part of the conveyancing process, solicitors ask local councils to carry out a Local Land Search to highlight any legal restrictions affecting the land or property.
But the 36 days it took Plymouth City Council is 24 days longer than it took in 2020, when only an 11-day turnaround was the average.
It meant the authority topped the table of respondents, by length of time, with Lewes District Council in second place, taking an average of 35 days to complete a local land search - up from 19 days in 2020 – despite only receiving an average of 261 search requests a month.
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Wiltshire Council (33 days), Salford City Council (33 days) and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council (25 days) complete the top five councils most likely to delay your house competition due to their long turnaround times for local land searches.
At the other end of the scale, more than 60 per cent of the councils analysed fall under the eight-day average to complete a local land search.
Impressively, 11 councils take just one working day to complete a local land search – including North Devon Council, Cardiff Council and City of York Council.
It’s also worth highlighting Dartford Council received more than 1,500 requests a month on average in the last year and still managed to maintain a 24-hour average turnaround.
But Cllr Deacon said with the Stamp Duty holiday ending this month, levels are expected to return to normal – and a quicker turnaround would likely follow.
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Business Live's South West Business Reporter is William Telford. William has more than a decade's experience reporting on the business scene in Plymouth and the South West. He is based in Plymouth but covers the entire region.
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He added: “Last week, demand fell by 150 requests from the previous week, this may be evidence requests will reduce over coming weeks and months. We currently process all our requests in date order to offer a fair and consistent approach. Pre-Covid the completion date turnaround in Plymouth was four days, we expect the current demand seen in Plymouth to exceed other parts of England and the South West.”
Dave Sayce, founder and director at Compare My Move, said: “Typically, the conveyancing process can take anywhere between eight to 12 weeks from the point the sale is agreed, but it will vary for everyone, depending on whether you’re in a chain or not and as shown by this study, where you’re buying. It’s a crucial process to the transaction, and to ensure a stress-free process, it’s vital you take on a licensed and regulated conveyancer or conveyancing solicitor to help guarantee it’s completed legally.”