Completion
Completion is the day a property sale finishes: the money is paid, the buyer becomes the owner and the keys are handed over.
Completion is the final step in buying or selling a home. On completion day the buyer's money reaches the seller's conveyancer, ownership passes to the buyer and the keys are released.
It is also the date that matters for sold prices. HM Land Registry records each sale against its completion date, and that is the date shown in Price Paid Data.
How completion fits into a sale
In England and Wales a sale has three main stages. An offer is accepted and the home is marked sold subject to contract. Then exchange of contracts makes the deal legally binding and fixes the completion date. Completion follows, often a week or a few weeks later, though both can happen on the same day.
Where homes are linked in a property chain, every sale in the chain usually completes on the same day. The money passes down the chain from one conveyancer to the next.
What happens on the day
The buyer's lender sends the mortgage money to the buyer's conveyancer, who sends the full purchase price to the seller's conveyancer. Once the seller's side confirms the money has arrived, the sale has completed and the agent can hand over the keys. The seller must have moved out by then.
The seller's conveyancer then pays off any mortgage on the home. The buyer's conveyancer deals with the tax and the registration.
After completion
In England the buyer's conveyancer must file a Stamp Duty Land Tax return and pay any tax due within 14 days of completion. In Wales the tax is Land Transaction Tax, and the return is due within 30 days.
The conveyancer then applies to HM Land Registry to register the buyer as the new owner. The sale appears in the published price data once that application has been lodged, usually two to eight weeks after completion. Our guide on why sold prices take months to appear explains the delay.
Why the date matters for prices
A sold price reflects a deal agreed some months before completion. If the price was renegotiated after a survey, the completed figure is the one on record. Because sales are filed under the month they completed, a late registration fills in a past month rather than the current one.
| Comes after | Exchange of contracts |
| Date in Price Paid Data | Completion date |
| SDLT return (England) | Within 14 days |
| LTT return (Wales) | Within 30 days |
| Shows in price data | Usually 2 to 8 weeks later |
Related terms
Exchange of contracts · Conveyancing · Property chain · Price Paid Data · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Land Transaction Tax