IT takes more than 16-and-a-half weeks on average to sell a property in the Swindon postcodes, new data has revealed.

A local market insights tool produced by professional house buying firm Property Solvers last analysed more than 926 property sales across the region between May 2018-19.

The data – updated monthly – tracks the moment a property is listed on Rightmove to the point it is marked as officially ‘sold’ at the HM Land Registry.

Properties in SN4 (covering Royal Wootton Bassett, Liddington and Wroughton) and SN6 (Shrivenham, Cricklade and Ashton Keynes) were among the fastest-selling in the area, along with those in SN7, SN8 and SN12. The 192 homes in these places took 15 weeks to sell on average.

But in SN9 (Pewsey, Upavon, Easton Royal) home sellers were waiting 20 weeks on average from listing to completion.

Property Solvers co-founder Ruban Selvanayagam said: “Although there are some natural delays to be expected, it’s surprising that it takes so long for house sales to go through – especially in the digital age we live in.”

“Whilst it’s true that the estate agency, conveyancing and mortgage industries continue to embrace the benefits of tech, much work needs to be done to overcome the friction across house sale chains.”

He continued: “As a fast house sale company, we buy for cash and take on several risks which means our transactions are completed in as little as seven days. However, we’re a business and we wouldn’t suggest that most buyers follow the same path as us.”