Property Blog and News / Birkenhead becomes the fastest-selling property market in England with sales taking an average of 40 days

Birkenhead becomes the fastest-selling property market in England with sales taking an average of 40 days

21 April 2026

Market Insight and Data

Author

Amelia Collins

Senior Content Creator

In the latest edition of the Under Offer Index, where we look at the fastest, and slowest, property markets in England and London, we see Birkenhead, Mansfield and Warrington top the sales list for the UK. Meanwhile:

Aldershot, Huddersfield and Hull sit at the bottom of the list.

Waltham Forest is the fastest moving London borough in terms of sales while Wandsworth tops the list for rentals.

Warrington is the fastest moving area for lettings in England but Newcastle Upon Tyne sits at the bottom of the list.

England sales

Looking at the first three months of 2026, we see Northern towns and cities top the list of the fastest-moving property sales markets in England. The top 3 all sit close to one another in Cheshire and Nottinghamshire, with Birkenhead seeing properties reaching an agreed offer in an average of 40 days, Mansfield 41 days and Warrington 44.

The rest of the top 10 sees more locations from the rest of England, with Norwich and Swindon seeing properties reaching and agreed offer in 46 days, Southend-On-Sea taking 47 days and Wigan, Peterborough and Crawley taking 48 days each. Plymouth closes out the top 10 with an average time of 49 days.

Despite a strong showing in the top 10, Northern cities also make up most of the bottom 10 English locations in when it comes to the speed of property sales, seven of the ten are located in Yorkshire, Cheshire or Lancashire.

Aldershot sits at the very bottom of the list however, with an average time to sale agreed taking 63 days.

England lettings

Similarly to the English sales markets, we see a strong showing from northern towns and cities with Warrington (27 days), Birkenhead (28 days), Burnley (29 days) and Mansfield (30 days) becoming the fastest moving lettings markets.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the England lettings list we see Newcastle Upon Tyne, taking an average of 53 days to reach and agreed offer on a property, while Brighton takes 51 days and Nottingham 50.

London sales

In the Capital city, Waltham Forest sees the fastest-paced market, with properties reaching an accepted offer in 46 days, while Kingston upon Thames sees an average of 50 days. Havering, Croydon, Bromley and Islington all see an average of 52 days. This continues the trend we have previously seen, with outer-London boroughs seeing faster movements in the sales market.

Central locations continue to perform slower, perhaps due to higher costs and fewer available properties. Kensington and Chelsea sees property sales accepted at an average of 78 days after a home has gone live on site, while Hammersmith and Fulham sees accepted offers after 66 days and the City of Westminster after 65 days. Richmond upon Thames and Lambeth both see properties receive an accepted offer after 64 days on the market.

London lettings

Regarding the rental market in London, we see more central locations performing well. Wandsworth sees the quickest average time to let with properties moving in just 32 days, with the City of London (33 days), Islington (34 days) and Sutton (34 days) following closely behind. Others in the fastest ten boroughs include Southwark (35 days), Hackney (36 days) Lewisham (36 days) and Tower Hamlets (36 days).

Kensington and Chelsea again sits at the bottom of the list, with properties taking an average of 49 days to reach let agreed. Richmond upon Thames (46 days), Harrow and Brent (both 45 days) are also among the slowest.

Jason Tebb, President of OnTheMarket, said:

“In alignment with our Hotspots report, we continue to see Northern towns and cities perform well, with faster times to both sale and let agreements, while more expensive, Southern locations see slower results.

“In London, outer boroughs tend to see faster results when it comes to property sales while more central locations perform better in regards to lettings. It will be interesting to see how this performance reacts to the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act when it comes into effect next month (May).”

See below for the full lists of Primary Urban Areas (PUAs) and London boroughs and their average number of days to sale or let agreed. Or keep an eye on the property markets in your local area at OnTheMarket.com.

UK sales

Position	Location	Average no. days
1	Birkenhead	40
2	Mansfield	41
3	Warrington	44
4	Norwich	46
5	Swindon	46
6	Southend-On-Sea	47
7	Wigan	48
8	Peterborough	48
9	Crawley	48
10	Plymouth	49
11	Blackburn	49
12	Liverpool	49
13	Burnley	49
14	Milton Keynes	49
15	Manchester	50
16	Derby	50
17	Basildon	50
18	Doncaster	50
19	Northampton	51
20	Portsmouth	51
21	Southampton	51
22	Bristol	52
23	Luton	52
24	Sheffield	52
25	Birmingham	53
26	Ipswich	53
27	Reading	53
28	Stoke-On-Trent	54
29	Newcastle Upon Tyne	54
30	Brighton	55
31	Rochdale	55
32	Gloucester	55
33	Bradford	55
34	Chatham	56
35	Leicester	56
36	Exeter	57
37	Cambridge	57
38	Worthing	57
39	Barnsley	57
40	Sunderland	57
41	London	57
42	Oxford	57
43	Nottingham	57
44	Slough	58
45	Leeds	58
46	Middlesbrough	58
47	Bournemouth	59
48	Coventry	60
49	Wakefield	60
50	Blackpool	60
51	Telford	62
52	Hull	62
53	Huddersfield	63
54	Aldershot	63

UK lettings

Position	Location	Average no. days
1	Warrington	27
2	Birkenhead	28
3	Burnley	29
4	Mansfield	30
5	Worthing	30
6	Swindon	31
7	Aldershot	33
8	Crawley	34
9	Ipswich	34
10	Hull	34
11	Wakefield	34
12	Chatham	35
13	Blackpool	35
14	Peterborough	36
15	Derby	37
16	Northampton	37
17	Southend-On-Sea	37
18	Rochdale	37
19	Bradford	37
20	Doncaster	37
21	Barnsley	38
22	Telford	38
23	Gloucester	38
24	Plymouth	39
25	Stoke-On-Trent	39
26	London	39
27	Luton	40
28	Bristol	40
29	Sheffield	40
30	Birmingham	41
31	Basildon	41
32	Huddersfield	42
33	Coventry	42
34	Cambridge	42
35	Exeter	42
36	Wigan	42
37	Norwich	42
38	Milton Keynes	43
39	Middlesbrough	44
40	Blackburn	44
41	Manchester	45
42	Southampton	45
43	Slough	45
44	Reading	45
45	Leicester	45
46	Portsmouth	46
47	Liverpool	48
48	Leeds	48
49	Oxford	49
50	Sunderland	49
51	Bournemouth	49
52	Nottingham	50
53	Brighton	51
54	Newcastle Upon Tyne	53

London sales

Position	Location	Average no. days
1.	Waltham Forest	46
2	Kingston Upon Thames	50
3	Havering	52
4	Croydon	52
5	Bromley	52
6	Islington	52
7	Hackney	53
8	Newham	53
9	Barking and Dagenham	53
10	Greenwich	54
11	Bexley	56
12	Hillingdon	56
13	Camden	57
14	Sutton	57
15	Redbridge	58
16	Lewisham	59
17	Wandsworth	59
18	Enfield	59
19	Tower Hamlets	60
20	Merton	60
21	Southwark	61
22	Brent	62
23	Haringey	62
24	Ealing	62
25	City of London	63
26	Hounslow	63
27	Harrow	63
28	Barnet	63
29	Lambeth	64
30	Richmond Upon Thames	64
31	City of Westminster	65
32	Hammersmith and Fulham	66
33	Kensington and Chelsea	78

London lettings

Position	Location	Average no. days
1.	Wandsworth	32
2	City of London	33
3	Islington	34
4	Sutton	34
5	Southward	35
6	Hackney	36
7	Lewisham	36
8	Tower Hamlets	36
9	Bromley	37
10	Bexley	37
11	Camden	37
12	Haringey	37
13	Lambeth	37
14	Hillingdon	38
15	Barking and Dagenham	38
16	Merton	38
17	Newham	38
18	Kingston Upon Thames	38
19	Hammersmith and Fulham	39
20	Greenwich	40
21	Waltham Forest	40
22	Ealing	41
23	Havering	41
24	Croydon	43
25	Hounslow	43
26	Redbridge	43
27	Barnet	43
28	City of Westminster	44
29	Enfield	44
30	Brent	45
31	Harrow	45
32	Richmond Upon Thames	46
33	Kensington and Chelsea	49