Ask how long it takes to buy a house and most answers count the weeks between exchange and settlement. That part is easy to predict. The part nobody can tell you is the search itself: how long it takes to find a home worth buying, and how many you have to look at before you get there.
So we counted. For our last 36 purchases we went back through every search and recorded how long it ran, how many homes we reviewed, how many we inspected, and how many inspection videos we filmed for our clients. This is what the numbers say.
The short answer
With a buyers agent, the active search took about six weeks on average across our last 36 purchases, and half were done in about four and a half weeks. Nearly eight in ten were done within eight weeks. Settlement then usually adds about six weeks under a standard NSW contract. From the first conversation to the keys, most buyers should allow three to four months.
How long the search actually takes
We measure the search from the first home we shortlist for a client to the last. Here is how those searches spread out.
Our last 36 purchases
How long the search took
Active search, from the first home shortlisted to the last. Share of purchases, cumulative. Sarah Kaye & Co. client records.
- About a third were done within four weeks.
- Nearly six in ten were done within six weeks.
- Nearly eight in ten were done within eight weeks.
- About one in ten ran past ten weeks, and the longest three in ten averaged about 11 weeks. The longest ran for 16 weeks.
The average sits a little above the typical search because a few long ones pull it up. Those long searches did not go wrong. In each of them the right home had not come up yet, and our client was better served by waiting than by settling for something close enough. Two searches went the other way: the right home was the first one we found.
That spread is why we tell clients to expect six to eight weeks, and why we never promise faster. A search should end when the right home turns up, not when a deadline does.
How many houses should you look at before buying?
More than most people expect. On average, for every home a client bought, we reviewed about 53 and inspected about 19. In our busiest three in ten searches it was more than 60 reviewed and more than 25 inspected. Across those purchases that came to 1,919 homes reviewed, 677 inspected and 1,887 inspection videos.
Our last 36 purchases
On average, for every home a client bought. Busiest three in ten: over 60 reviewed, over 25 inspected.
A home we review is one we have shortlisted and assessed against the brief: the price evidence, the planning controls, the strata or building history, and the street. Every home we inspect is reviewed first, so it counts in both. A home we inspect is one we have walked through in person. About one in three of the homes we review earns an inspection.
In a typical search that works out to about eight or nine homes reviewed and about three inspected every week. It is the pace that fits a search into six weeks, and it is a lot of Saturdays for anyone doing it alone around a job and a family.
Why we rule so many homes out
Of the homes we inspect, about four in ten we rule out ourselves, before our client has to decide anything. Where we recorded the reason, these came up most often:
- Stairs, or no lift
- Road or flight-path noise
- Aspect and outlook
- Location, once you stand in the street
- Presentation, or rooms smaller than the floorplan suggests
- Too much to renovate
None of these show up in a listing. Photos are taken on a quiet morning with a wide lens. A floorplan does not tell you the bus stops outside the main bedroom, or that the afternoon sun never reaches the living room.
Ruling homes out early is what keeps a search short. Every home crossed off on a video is an open home our client did not have to drive to, and a decision they did not have to agonise over. We would rather tell you not to buy a home than talk you into one.
Does the price change how long it takes?
Less than you might think. Here is the same search across the three price bands we buy in, averaged across the same 36 purchases.
| Under $2m | $2m to $5m | $5m plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes reviewed | about 50 | about 58 | about 44 |
| Homes inspected | about 18 | about 20 | about 17 |
| Videos per inspection | just over 2 | 3 | just over 3 |
| Active search | about 6½ weeks | about 5½ weeks | about 6 weeks |
The middle band has the most choice, so we review the most homes there. Above $5m there are fewer homes that fit a brief and more of them never reach the portals, so the search is narrower and each inspection goes deeper: more videos, more questions, more time on the planning and the paperwork. The length of the search moves by a week at most.
It is also why our fixed fee does not change with the price or the number of homes we look at. A buyer at $1.5 million gets the same search as a buyer at $8 million.
What makes a search faster, or slower
In our experience, the searches that finish quickest have a few things in common:
- Finance approved before the search began, so we could move the day the right home appeared.
- A clear brief with real deal-breakers, not a long wish list.
- Willingness to act before auction or off-market. Over 75% of the homes we secure never reach the portals.
- Trust in the inspection videos, so a home could be ruled in or out without a second visit.
The longer ones usually come down to a brief that changed part way through, a client waiting for one particular street, or a thin market at that price. Sometimes slower is simply right. The cost of waiting a few more weeks is small next to the cost of buying the wrong home.
How long does it take to buy a house, start to finish?
Here is the whole timeline in New South Wales, from the first conversation to the keys.
- Brief and finance: a week or two. We agree the suburbs, budget and deal-breakers, and you get pre-approval in place.
- Active search: typically four to eight weeks, as above.
- Due diligence and negotiation: days to a couple of weeks. Building and pest reports, strata records and your solicitor's contract review, usually running alongside the last part of the search.
- Exchange: on the day at auction, with no cooling-off period. For a private sale in NSW there is usually a five business day cooling-off period after exchange.
- Settlement: about six weeks under a standard NSW contract, though it can be agreed shorter or longer.
Add those together and most buyers should allow three to four months from first call to keys, with the search itself the part that varies most.
Buying from overseas or interstate
Distance does not have to slow a search down. Every inspection we do is filmed, about three videos per home, and shared to your own private client portal, usually the same day, with photos. Our clients overseas see what we see, decide on their own clock, and some have bought without setting foot in the home until settlement.
What this means if you are about to start
- Allow three to four months from first call to keys, and be pleasantly surprised if it is quicker.
- Get finance approved before you start looking. It is the single biggest thing that shortens a search.
- Expect to say no far more often than yes. On average it was about 52 times for every yes.
- If you are weighing up help, ask any buyers agent how many homes they will look at for you, and whether there is a cap. Ours has none. We go until we are done.
You can see every one of those searches on our website, with the reasons we said no. Our recent purchases page tells the stories behind some of them. And if you are still deciding whether to use a buyers agent at all, our honest guide to is a buyers agent worth it sets out when you do not need one.
Questions buyers ask us
How long does it take to buy a house in Sydney?
Most buyers should allow three to four months from first conversation to settlement. With a buyers agent, the search itself took about six weeks on average across our last 36 purchases, and settlement under a standard NSW contract adds about six weeks.
How many houses should you look at before buying?
Across our last 36 purchases we reviewed about 53 homes and inspected about 19 for every home a client bought, and more than 60 and more than 25 in our busiest three in ten searches. The number matters less than ruling homes out for the right reasons.
How long does a buyers agent take to find a property?
Typically four to eight weeks of active searching. Half of our last 36 searches were done in about four and a half weeks, and nearly eight in ten within eight weeks. Some take longer, and we will not rush you into the wrong home to shorten it.
How long is settlement in NSW?
About six weeks under a standard NSW contract, though buyer and seller can agree a shorter or longer settlement. Your solicitor or conveyancer will confirm it in the contract.
How we counted: our last 36 purchases, from our own client records. Homes reviewed are every home we shortlisted and assessed for a client, including the ones we went on to inspect. Homes inspected are the ones we walked through in person. The busiest and longest three in ten are averaged separately for each measure. Active search runs from the first home shortlisted to the last. Figures are averages unless stated, rounded.
By Mike Kaye, Co-founder and Director, Sarah Kaye & Co. Buyers Agents. Sarah Kaye & Co Research.