How long does it take for a property sale to be registered in the Land Registry datasets?

The authoritative source for property transactions in England and Wales is the Land Registry.

One dataset it publishes is the "Price Paid Data" (PPD) list the basic details of most property transactions back to 1995.

This is 'open data' and any time you see historical property price information - such as on this site or the property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla - then it will have been sourced from this dataset.

How long does it take from a property selling to it being shown on the internet?

You will often see figures like "a few months" or "the last week of the following month" but the answer is a little more complex and the delay a lot longer than you may expect.

As of November 2023 our stats show the average delay is

• 109 days (about 3 months) for existing properties
• a whopping 529 days (about 1 year and 6 months) for new build properties

There are some outliers that can take significantly longer, sometimes several years - especially in the case of new build or more complex transactions.

It's worth remembering that delays are due to several factors such as

• Transactions being filed late at the Land Registry or with incomplete or incorrect details.
• Transactions requiring clarification.
• The workload of the Land Registry.
• As well as the delay built into the system by the monthly update process.

This page shows statistics for the Land Registry monthly price paid data (PPD) updates and the delay between transaction date and release and its updated monthly.

What is the process to record a property transaction?

Transaction (changes to existing titles and new titles) go through the following steps before then appear in the PPD dataset.

1. The transaction is completed.
2. The transaction application is submitted to the Land Registry.
3. The Land Registry processes the application - which can be automatic in the case of simple routine transactions but can take a very long time in the case of complex changes and/or when clarifications are needed and/or applications need to be corrected.
4. Once the transaction application has been completed its added to the PPD for release the following month.
5. The Price Paid Data is updated on the 20th working day of each month. For example, if a transaction application was completed by the 29th September 2029 it will have been included in the PPD update on October 27th.

It's worth remembering that delays at stage #3 can be caused due to factors due to the Land Registry (such as workload) and external factors (incomplete applications or clarifications needed).

Our statistics show the total delay between step #1 - the transaction being completed and #5 - the transaction being released in the Price Paid Dataset (PPD)

When is the Land Registry Price Paid Data (PPD) updated?

A new monthly update is released on the 20th working day of the month - and that will contain any transactions processed up until the last working day of the previous month.

For example, a transaction processed on Sept 15th will be included in the October monthly update on Oct 27th, whilst a transaction processed on October 1st will be included in the update at the end of November.

For a simple, automatically approved transaction then the best-case scenario between #1 and #5 (an transaction completing and the data appearing in the PPD) will be approximately 28 calendar days (say 29th Sept to 27th Oct) whilst the average best case scenario would be approx 43 days.

This 28/43 day delay is only for the update process, it's in addition to any delay between a transaction taking place and it being processed.

What's the worst-case scenario?

Our data shows there are a significant number of new build properties that take over 3 years.

For changes to existing properties the process is simpler but it will still take some time with a noticeable bump around the 7 month mark.

Further Information

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-estimated-completion-timeframes

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-processing-times

Its worth repeating that you need to add on average 43 days to the times the Land Registry list in the guidance above as once a property transaction application has been completed by the Land Registry it still takes an average of 43 days to appear in the Price Paid Dataset (PPD) and therefore on websites.