Hundreds of thousands of homebuyers will miss out on the chancellor’s stamp duty holiday because of delays in getting purchases over the line, according to fresh research by Yes Homebuyers.

With sizable backlogs forming at the final legal stages of a sale, the home buying platform warns that home sellers should expect to see delays of at least a month from the point they accept an offer until they actually complete.

That means the average home seller will not have officially sold their home until 15 weeks, or 105 days, after accepting an offer.

Matthew Cooper, founder and managing director of Yes Homebuyers, said: “Many home buyers and sellers may have had ambitions of moving before Christmas having accepted an offer in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the current reality is that many will probably struggle to complete before the stamp duty holiday deadline expires.

“While a lengthy sale process is nothing new, the current delays really highlight the unpredictability of the property selling process in the UK. While many may well accept a delayed timeline as part and parcel of selling, it’s the uncertainty of the delay itself that is the real issue.”

Source: Yes Homebuyers