National Homebuyers reveal cost of “Home-sellers' Sickie”

Moving home is rated as one of the most time-consuming and stressful events in one's life. Now new research by established property company National Homebuyers reveals that the time employees spend selling their home is costing businesses £millions. A shocking 35% percentage of those questioned admitted to taking at least 3 days sick leave while trying to find a buyer.

The investigation also revealed that even when not pulling a `sickie` many employees allow their move to impact on their working day. 96 percent of those questioned spent at least some of their time at work on the house selling process and a whopping 20 percent spent more than 2 hours per day.

There were 1.64 million residential property transactions in 2004*. This high number of people moving home means the cost to Industry in terms of employee time wasted at work is massive; certainly in the millions.

With house sales slowing and properties now taking twice as long to sell as six months ago **, the damage is set to increase. The average house sale in December 2004 took 18 weeks, compared to only nine weeks in May. This could potentially double the cost to UK businesses.

The National Homebuyers survey revealed that dealing with solicitors and estate agents was the most time-consuming activity. This inevitably encroaches on an employee's time because it needs to be tackled during office hours while property professionals are contactable.

Julian King, director of National Homebuyers comments: "We often hear stories of people whose lives have become over-run with the daily tasks involved in selling their home. However this survey has revealed the scale and affect of the problem to be worse than we imagined.

It’s particularly worrying to see that this impacts on the UK economy as well as individual property owners. As house prices have levelled off each purchase is taking longer. Unfortunately this problem looks set to get worse if the market doesn’t pick up."

National Homebuyers is an established property company that purchase all types of residential and commercial property. The company acts as a cash buyer with no chain, providing an ideal service for homeowners looking to sell quickly.

This service is only intended for homeowners willing to accept an offer below market value in return for a quick, hassle-free purchase.

National Homebuyers remove the stress and dramatically cut the time involved in selling a property on the open market. The homeowner is under no obligation at any time to accept the offer.


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Notes To Editors

*Based on information gathered from the number of "Particulars Delivered" forms processed at stamp duty offices. This information was compiled by the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

** It is now taking twice as long to sell a house than 6 months ago (18 weeks on average) Dec 04 www.propertyfinder.com


About The Survey
The National Homebuyers survey was conducted in January with a sample of 500 employed mortgage borrowers. The research was conducted over the telephone.

A full copy of the survey results is available upon request


About National Homebuyers
A valuation from an RICS chartered surveyor is required before National Homebuyers make their cash offer. This is fully refunded to the homeowner on completion.

National Homebuyers refund up to £500 of the homeowners legal costs on completion.