Ask most homebuyers what keeps them awake at night during a move and the honest answer used to be the chain: that fragile line of dependent sales stretching away above and below you, any one of which could collapse and take your dream home with it. New research suggests that fear has been overtaken by something far less dramatic but, it turns out, far more corrosive: the conveyancing process itself.
A survey of 1,000 recent buyers commissioned by Lyons Bowe Solicitors found that 42% regarded the conveyancing process as the main factor slowing or disrupting a transaction, compared with just 19% who identified property chains. That is more than double, and it upends a lot of received wisdom in the property trade about where the real risk sits once an offer has been accepted.
Where the frustration actually bites
Dig into the detail and the picture sharpens. Communication between legal representatives emerged as a particular concern, with 23% of respondents saying slow contact between buyers' and sellers' conveyancers was the leading reason for delays during the legal stages of a transaction. Conveyancers were also seen as having significant influence over the progress of a sale or purchase, with 49% of those surveyed saying they had the greatest impact on whether a transaction proceeded smoothly. That is a remarkable figure. It suggests buyers no longer see the estate agent or the mortgage lender as the person holding the process together. They see their solicitor.
Not everyone was willing to pin the blame on one party alone, though. A third of respondents said responsibility did not rest with one participant, arguing that a successful transaction depended on all parties working together effectively. That nuance matters, because it points to something structural rather than a single villain: a system with too many moving parts and not enough visibility for the people living through it.
When asked which improvements would have made the biggest difference to their most recent transaction, 24% cited faster responses from and between conveyancers, while a further 20% wanted better communication between all parties, and 17% said having more legal and property information available upfront would have helped. The same research found 42% of buyers felt they had the least visibility over their transaction during the conveyancing stage specifically. Almost a quarter, 23%, said reducing the length and complexity of the conveyancing process was the single change they would make to improve the homebuying experience.
Paul Lyons, managing director at Lyons Bowe, put it plainly: "it is understandable that people want greater certainty about what is happening with their transaction and when they can expect it to progress." His firm's own view is that the legal complexity is unavoidable, but the sense of being left in the dark doesn't have to be.
What Kent buyers are actually up against
This isn't an abstract complaint for anyone selling or buying across the county right now. Properties here are currently taking an average of 190 days on the market before a sale is even agreed, and that figure is before the legal work even begins. A conveyancing stage that then drags on for weeks longer than expected, with poor communication on top, doesn't just add frustration. It compounds a wait that many sellers and buyers had already assumed was nearly over.
Kent's own housing stock adds another layer. Coastal towns bring lease and building-maintenance queries, while inland areas can mean waiting on slower rural local authority searches, and conservation areas or flood-risk zones near the Medway add further checks before contracts can be exchanged. None of that is unique to this county, but it does mean the national frustration with conveyancing lands with particular force here.
An industry stretched thin
The wider numbers help explain why solicitors themselves are under pressure, not just buyers. There were 10,724 residential conveyancing solicitors in England and Wales in January 2026, according to the IRN UK Residential Conveyancing Market Report 2026, more than 2,000 fewer than at the end of 2021. Separate data from TwentyCi showed that the average time to exchange reached about 123 days in 2025. Fewer solicitors handling more transactions was never going to be a recipe for faster, calmer service.
The sector has also faced a series of regulatory and compliance changes since April 2025, including stricter anti-money laundering requirements, mandatory new TA6 and TA7 property forms, and revised Money Laundering Regulations guidance. Every one of those changes exists for good reason, protecting buyers and sellers from fraud and poor practice. But each also adds paperwork to a process that was already straining under demand.
Andrew Stevens, general manager at Access Legal, whose report tracked this decline, argued that "technology is the natural answer to growing capacity without growing headcount," adding that digitising workflows helps conveyancers navigate change without extra pressure on teams.
It isn't only this year's data either. Earlier Lyons Bowe research found that 65% of recent homebuyers say the conveyancing process was the slowest part of their buying process, with a quarter saying the legal back and forth took more than 16 weeks to complete. For 72% of buyers, the process from having an offer accepted to completion took more than 12 weeks, and for more than a fifth it stretched beyond 24 weeks, pushing close to and often beyond six months. Whatever angle the surveys come from, the direction of travel is consistent.
What buyers say they actually want
The appetite for communication isn't subtle. While 68% of buyers expect a conveyancer to respond to an initial enquiry within 24 hours, 63% expect confirmation that their file has been opened within the same timeframe, and 61% expect confirmation that paperwork and identification documents have been received within 24 hours. Four in five buyers, 81%, expect to be informed of any issue that could delay their purchase either immediately or on the same working day, with 32% expecting to be notified straight away. That is a demanding bar for any firm to clear, especially one juggling dozens of live files with fewer colleagues than it had five years ago.
It also tells its own story about trust. Buyers aren't necessarily expecting miracles from their solicitor. They're expecting to be told, honestly and promptly, when things slow down. The research suggests that when firms fail to do that, the silence itself becomes the stress, arguably more than any legal delay ever could.
A market rethinking who's really in charge
None of this means the property chain has stopped mattering. Long chains still fail, and they still cause genuine heartbreak. What this research does is reframe where buyers believe the real friction lies once a sale is agreed: not with the person three doors up the chain, but with the two solicitors meant to be moving matters forward on their behalf.
For Kent's market, already carrying some of the longest waits to a sold sign anywhere in the data, that reframing feels overdue. As regulatory demands on conveyancers keep growing and firm numbers keep shrinking, the pressure on communication is only going to increase, not ease. Whether the industry responds with more staff, smarter technology, or simply better habits around picking up the phone, the buyers surveyed have already told everyone exactly what they'd value most: knowing what's happening, and when.