Sellers at the top of the market are often surprised by how long a good property can sit without an offer, and the instinct is to assume the price is wrong. More often it isn’t. The government quotes around 120 days as the average time from offer accepted to completion, and premium homes frequently spend longer than that simply finding a buyer, before the legal process has even started.

Conditions over the past two years have made that harder: Carter Jonas recorded a fall of roughly 65% in London prime luxury transaction volumes in 2025 against 2024, and Savills forecasts a further 2% decline in prime central London values across 2026 before they stabilise.

For anyone who has already found their next home, that timeline creates a problem, because the gap between the sale and the purchase widens quickly and the chain above rarely waits. The question is what is actually causing the delay, and what the options are when the onward purchase cannot be deferred.

A Smaller Pool of Buyers

Not many people can buy at £1 million or above, and that single fact shapes everything about selling at this level. At any point, the number of active, serious buyers in that price range will be tiny compared to what you’d find lower down the market. A well-priced three-bed semi might pull in five or six solid offers within a few weeks, but a £2 million detached house in the same area could go months before one or two credible buyers even come through the door.

Every viewing carries more weight because of that, and if one buyer pulls out, sellers are essentially back to square one. There just aren’t enough people in the market at that level to replace a lost buyer quickly.
Due Diligence Takes Longer at Higher Values

Every party in the chain will pick apart a bigger transaction more carefully. Solicitors will spend more time on title checks, especially with older or unusual properties where ownership histories have layers to them. Lenders often insist on more detailed valuations and may bring in specialist surveyors to look at things a standard surveyor wouldn’t cover. On top of all that, anti-money-laundering rules bite harder at higher price points.

Enhanced checks on the buyer’s source of funds can easily add weeks to the conveyancing timeline, and that’s before you factor in any back-and-forth between the buyer’s legal team and their bank. None of these steps can be skipped, and trying to rush any of them won’t actually save time.

How to Fund the Gap Between Sale and Purchase

For most premium sellers, the onward purchase causes more trouble than the wait itself. You’ve had an offer accepted on a new home, your current property hasn’t sold, and you’re stuck between two timelines that refuse to line up.

Some sellers respond by slashing their asking price to force a quick sale, but that can mean losing tens of thousands on a property that would have hit its full value with just a bit more time on the market.

Others look at short-term finance to cover the gap instead. It keeps the onward purchase alive, so there’s no danger of losing a home that may have taken a year to find, and the sale can carry on at full asking price until the right buyer turns up. It can also steady the chain above, because the vendor sees the funds will be there regardless of how quickly the sale moves.

Before you commit to either option, estimate your bridging loan costs across different term lengths and weigh that expense against what a rushed price cut would take off your sale. A few months of borrowing will often work out far cheaper than taking a £50,000 or £100,000 hit on your sale price.

When Patience Costs More Than the Alternative

Under normal conditions, holding out for the right buyer tends to pay off in the premium market. But your situation might not allow for that. If there’s a hard deadline on your onward purchase, or the chain above you is losing patience, then waiting for a perfect offer could mean losing the home you actually want to move into.

It becomes a simple question: will a price cut cost you more than the delay will? Sellers with significant equity can sometimes borrow against the unsold property on a short-term basis, keeping the onward purchase alive without giving away value at the bottom end. So run the numbers early, well before the chain starts pressuring you into a snap decision, and you’ll have the clarity to make a choice that actually works in your favour.