It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride in the last few months in the property and mortgage world, with rates seemingly changing daily, property prices remaining strong and the cost of living continuing to cause concern for many.
Having said that, we are still seeing plenty of appetite for both buying and selling in the local areas, with many clients getting offers accepted on properties and this then kick starting the full mortgage application journey for them.
I want to focus on timescales this month as it’s one of the most common questions we’re asked, especially once a client has had an offer accepted on a property – “how long before I can move in?”
This is a completely understandable question as the whole unknown, especially as a first time buyer, can cause a lot of anxiety and nervousness until you physically get those keys in your hand.
So here’s a handy run down of timescales for different stages of the buying process and what you can expect.
Firstly, there’s the Decision In Principle. This should only take 24 – 48 hours to come back from your adviser and confirm the level of borrowing you can potentially get for when you’re searching for that dream home.
They are usually valid for between one to three months depending on the lender.
Once you get an offer accepted it’s on to the next step of full application.
In regards to the full mortgage application, once your adviser has received your supporting documents such as payslips and bank statements, they will submit a full mortgage application to the relevant lender, specific to your mortgage requirements and affordability.
Each lender across the UK has their own service levels, which often depend on how busy they are and the cases they need to work through.
Standard timescales for a lender to pick up your case just now is around five working days, however this can be sooner or even longer.
For example, Natwest are currently on a 20 working day service level but this is due to them previously being a top sourcing lender, which can heavily impact service levels.
Once the case is picked up for pre-underwriting and the documents checked, it gets passed to full underwriting which can add around three - five working days on to the timeframe.
If the underwriter is happy with everything and the valuation has already been completed, they would issue the mortgage offer and that is valid for six months.
This is where it gets passed to your solicitor to complete the legal work involved.
Your solicitor’s timescales will differ from firm to firm and again can have various factors which impact this, such as level of cases to work through, communication with other solicitors if there’s a chain and any property searches needing done.
The solicitor also has to factor in two – five days to receive the funds from the mortgage lender to then pass on to the seller’s solicitor.
The legal process can be as little as two weeks but generally I would say to expect four – six weeks before you get your keys from mortgage offer, based on the different factors above.
Your solicitor will keep you informed of an exact date of entry as they work through the legal process.
When speaking with clients at the very start, we give approximate timescales from start to finish of around eight – 10 weeks from when the full mortgage application is submitted, so that should give you a rough idea before you even start the search for your new property.
As always, your mortgage broker will keep you informed throughout to keep those nerves at bay as much as possible.
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