What is a property chain?

What is a property chain?

It's something you may well hear a lot about during the house buying process.

What is a property chain?

It's something you may well hear a lot about during the house buying process.

A term in which can cause the biggest frustrations when buying or selling a property.

If you're buying a "chain free" property, then that's amazing. More often than not however, you will be tied in with other buyers and sellers, in a sequence of property transactions that all have to come together at exactly the same time.

So at the start of the chain there is someone who is buying, maybe they're a first time buyer, buy to let investor, or someone who has nothing to sell. At the end these are the people just looking to sell, whether that's an investor selling up, somewhere empty or a new build. In the middle you have the links which can be numerous. A chain itself will only move as quick as the slowest link. Unfortunately a chain can collapse at any point too. This could be completely out of your control, someone may have lost their job, had a separation, bereavement, or might have just changed their mind.

You can avoid a chain. If you’re fortunate enough to be selling a property and you’ve got more than one interested party to choose from, maybe the better buyer is a first time buyer, investor or someone not needing to sell. And if you’re looking to buy onwards and you’re struggling to find a home because of the chain behind you, it could be beneficial to break the chain, maybe temporarily just move in with family.


Get in touch with us

At first glance, that number stands out. More homes. More choice. But that's only half the story. Although the number of properties for sale locally has increased since 2022, the number of homes selling has also increased.

As we are now half way through 2025, it's certain the Stevenage housing market has been more restrained than the post pandemic 24 months of summer 2020 through to July/August of 2022

If you have ever thought about selling your Pinner home, chances are you have been tempted to push the asking price a little higher than advised. After all, it’s your biggest tax free asset. A few extra thousand on the asking price of your Pinner home sounds like a smart move, doesn’t it? In this article we explore why this is not the case.

If you are a Bicester homeowner or landlord and considering selling your Bicester property soon, you may have wondered how long it will take to find a buyer and sell.