UK property market: where homes are selling fastest in 2025

• Properties in Waltham Forest (London) and Manchester sell fastest - in just 19 days
• Denbighshire (Wales) has the slowest market at 62 days to sell
• Scotland leads as the fastest-selling country in the UK (21 days average)
• Perfectly priced properties sell twice as fast as those requiring price reductions

In the week that saw the British mark National Tea Day, online property portal Zoopla published the findings of their analysis of the housing market to establish where in the country houses are selling faster.

So, pull up a freshly-brewed cuppa and read where the best spots are for selling your home, or, if you are looking to buy, find out where you need to get in quickly because of the speed at which the homes are being snapped up.

Before we delve into where the fastest-sellers are in the country, it's worth looking at the bottom of the table in Zoopla's research.

Generally speaking, it's the lower end of Britain that has the most sluggish of markets. The data indicates that, in line with the rest of the country, buyer demand is roughly the same as elsewhere in the country but the supply of property to the market is significantly lower.

Denbighshire, which was highlighted as the slowest-moving market in the analysis, was shown to be taking on average two months, against the best performing areas of Waltham Forest jointly with Manchester taking around a third of that time. This is a significant change on the same time period from the previous year, which was two weeks less on average before the property sold.

Some of the areas are performing better than in the first quarter 2024, but are still in the bottom ten areas for getting a sale through quickly.

Slowest-Moving Property Markets in the UK (Q1 2025)

*SSTC - Sold Subject to Contract

Source: Zoopla Research 

All of the areas assessed in Zoopla's analysis that form the top ten best-selling locations in the country are being sold (subject to contract) within 3.5 weeks or better and all show a significant improvement on the statistics for the same period in 2024.

As already highlighted, Waltham Forest in London and Manchester take the top prize with properties reaching sold status in under three weeks.

However, it's interesting to note that the top ten is largely filled with the locations from the North-East and North-West areas of England, although Zoopla notes that the prize goes to Scotland for the country with the fastest-moving properties within the UK (taking an average of 21 days) which is almost two weeks faster than the average of the UK as a whole, although it is worth pointing out that Scotland has a different system that results in these calculations.

Fastest-moving property markets in the UK (Q1 2025)

*SSTC - Sold Subject to Contract

Source: Zoopla Research 

For home buyers:

When you're buying a property, it is always a good idea to do your research to find out what types of property are available in the area that you want to move to. This will allow you to get a feel for how long your favoured home is likely to be on the market before it gets the Sold sign erected outside it.

For home sellers:

When you're selling a property, it's always seductive to be drawn into the speed of the sales of similar properties and put a higher price in the belief that the demand will absorb it and you'll get a nice little extra sum. However, buyers are wise to such activity and, while properties might be whizzing in and out of estate agents' windows, you'll probably find that poor pricing will delay the sale.

Research shows that buyers are put off by a home that has its price gradually and repeatedly dropped since this might be an indicator that it is a problematic property rather than one that was originally marketed at a too high price. Take the estate agent's advice and look into how many properties that are similar to yours are selling for and pitch your desired price accordingly.

Zoopla's research shows that properties with reduced prices are taking almost twice as long to sell as one that has been perfectly-priced from the start - with all the stress that dropping prices and wondering if you'll successfully sell that comes with it.

Expert analysis

Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla, commented on the findings of the research:

"It currently takes just over a month to agree a home sale across England and Wales but this varies widely across the country and by property type with smaller family homes the fastest selling homes.

"Metrics like time to sell and average sale price are crucial in helping would-be sellers understand the value of their home and the asking price they could secure in 2025.

"Buyers have a lot more choice of homes for sale than a year ago. Aiming too high on the asking price is likely to impact saleability and how long you may have to wait to agree a sale.

"This is partly why Zoopla's MyHome is seeing such significant user engagement, with 1.6m homeowners returning to the tool every month.

"This is just the beginning, with more innovation planned in Zoopla's pipeline that will better educate sellers and ultimately connect more motivated movers with agents to deliver improved ROI."

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