Property chain
A property chain is a line of linked sales where each buyer is also selling. Every sale in the chain depends on the others going through.
A property chain is a line of home sales that depend on each other. It forms when a buyer needs to sell their own home before they can buy, and their buyer is in the same position.
Each link in the chain is one sale. The whole chain moves at the pace of its slowest link, and if one sale fails, the others can fail with it.
How a chain forms
As an example, a first-time buyer buys a flat. The owner of the flat is buying a terraced house, and the owner of that house is buying a detached house from someone moving into rented accommodation. That makes a chain of three sales. The example is only for illustration.
The bottom of the chain is usually a buyer with nothing to sell, such as a first-time buyer or a cash buyer. The top is a seller who is not buying, for example because they are moving abroad, into rented accommodation or into care, or because the home is being sold by an estate or a developer.
Chain free
A home described as chain free is one whose seller is not buying another home that the sale depends on. A buyer described as chain free has nothing to sell. Both make a sale simpler, because there are fewer other sales that could hold it up.
New homes sold by a developer, empty homes and homes sold by executors are often chain free on the seller's side.
Why chains slow sales down
Every sale in the chain needs its own conveyancing, searches, surveys and mortgage offers. All of them need to be ready before anyone can exchange. Contracts are then usually exchanged on the same day all the way along, and everyone agrees one completion date.
If a buyer anywhere in the chain pulls out before exchange of contracts, the sales that depend on it stall until a new buyer is found.
Chains and sold prices
Each sale in a chain is recorded separately in Price Paid Data, with its own price. Because chains usually complete on the same day, several linked sales in one area can share a completion date.
| Bottom of the chain | A buyer with nothing to sell |
| Top of the chain | A seller who is not buying |
| Exchange | Usually on the same day for every link |
| In Price Paid Data | Each sale recorded separately |
Related terms
Exchange of contracts · Completion · Conveyancing · Sold subject to contract · Gazumping · New build