Once you’ve found a property and submitted your mortgage application, it usually takes 2–3 weeks for the lender to carry out checks, value the property, and issue a mortgage offer. After that, the process moves to your solicitor, who handles contracts, property searches, and liaises with the seller’s solicitor. The legal side usually takes 6–10 weeks, depending on how complex the chain is. On average, buying a house from offer accepted to completion can take around 10–14 weeks in total. A mortgage adviser helps keep everything on track.