The time it takes for a property to sell has hit a record high. A mix of “buyer financial uncertainty and a shortage of conveyancing firms”, means it now takes “longer than at any time in at least a decade” to sell a property, said The Times. Figures from property data firm TwentyCi show that it takes an average of 211 days – or 6.9 months – between a property being listed for sale and new owners moving in.

Meanwhile, almost half of homes listed on property portals over the past three years have failed to sell, according to Zoopla. Here are five of the most common reasons:

Unrealistic pricing
The “biggest sticking point” is pricing, said Zoopla. “Overambitious and unrealistic” values are the “biggest reason homes remain unsold”.
In many of these cases, the appropriate course of action is to lower the asking price, as this is often “the only way to attract a buyer”.

Reduced demand
Sellers are also suffering from a lack of demand, amid concerns about geopolitical tensions, while “political uncertainty is emerging as another headwind for the market”, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. High mortgage rates are also having an impact on buyer budgets, and leading to hesitation.

Competition
Data from property website Rightmove shows the number of homes for sale is at its highest level since 2015. This makes it a “buyers’ market”, said MoneyWeek, so sellers need to be “more flexible on pricing to attract interest amid high levels of competition”.

Poor first impressions
Lower levels of demand and high supply make it more important that your home is accurately priced and attractive to sellers. Think about “first impressions”, said the HomeOwners Alliance, such as the state of your garden and whether your wheelie bins are on show. Buyers may struggle to look beyond the wear and tear inside your house, so you may need “enhancements or staging to help it sell”.

Wrong time
Many sellers don’t realise how much “seasonality matters”, said Lynch Brother Homes. January, February and March offer the “quickest average time to sell”, while late November to Christmas is typically the “deadest period”.

Count Binface had been “looking forward to a relaxing journey back to his home planet of Sigma IX”, said The Guardian. Then Nigel Farage “dropped the “political bombshell” of his resignation as MP for Clacton-on-Sea.

Britain’s “hottest new political property” said he was “left with no choice but to perform a swift intergalactic handbrake turn”, and enter the by-election race. With the main parties all vowing to boycott the contest, the 5,900-year-old leader of the Recyclons could well be Farage’s only challenger.

‘Unity candidate’
Count Binface is the alter ego of Jon Harvey, a 46-year-old comedy writer whose credits include “The Thick of It” and “Have I Got News for You”. He first entered politics in 2017 as Lord Buckethead but, following a copyright claim over the character, re-emerged in 2019 as Count Binface.

Since then, he’s taken on prominent politicians at the ballot box, running against Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham. But the “satirical figure” is best known for his “rubbish-can-shaped helmet” and “absurd campaign promises”, said Al Jazeera.

His manifestos have included pledges to cut the cost of the 99 ice cream with a Flake to 99p, and to rename London Bridge “Phoebe Waller-Bridge”. He has also promised to “nationalise Adele” and “conscript anyone who plays loud music without headphones on public transport”. For the Clacton election, Binface has pledged to “build at least one affordable house”. But he said his main appeal is that he’s “not Nigel Farage”.

‘Electoral shock’
Harvey has been “inundated” with emails and messages from Binface activists “offering to knock on doors and deliver leaflets on his behalf”, said The Guardian. His campaign “could yet emerge as an electoral shock” comparable to when Hartlepool United’s mascot, H’Angus the Monkey, was elected mayor of the northern town.

Betting odds platform Oddschecker said odds on the parody candidate winning had been slashed from 5/1 to 7/2. “It’s earliest days yet and there is a long old road to go,” said the Count. “But if in the unlikely event that the humans of Clacton prefer me to old Nige, then I will do my very best to represent them.”

A replica of a mosque on top of pallets, which was due to be lit for an “Eleventh Night” bonfire in Moygashel, Co Tyrone, tomorrow as part of the Protestant Orange Order’s 12 July loyalist celebrations. The widely condemned display was burned last night as police prepared to remove it.

Charles McQuillan / Getty Images

Ceredigion: Rhydlewis, Llandysul
A delightful rustic house within easy reach of the sandy beaches of Cardigan Bay. Set in mature gardens of approx. 1.5 acres, the property boasts a lake and a beautifully restored lakeside cabin as well as two Dutch barns. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, recep, garden, parking. £585,000; Savills.

Powys: Penybont Hall, Llandrindod Wells
This grand Grade II manor house dates back to 1755 and is set in more than 21 acres. 8 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, 2-bed annexe, garden, outbuilding, parking. £950,000; Strutt & Parker.

Powys: Plas Trefaldwyn, Montgomery
Fine Georgian house set in approx. 3.6 acres of mature gardens. 8 beds, 6 baths, kitchen, 5 receps, coach house, garden, parking. £850,000; Tulloch & Carter.

Flintshire: Coed Y Cra Ucha Farm, Northop
A delightful Grade II* farmhouse with far-reaching views of the surrounding countryside. 3 suites, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 self-contained flats (with a total of 3 beds), recep, study, garden, outbuildings, parking. £975,000; Strutt & Parker.

This think tank exposed fat cats and obscenely high pay. Guess what has happened to it?
Polly Toynbee in The Guardian
The announcement of the “imminent closure” of the High Pay Centre “feels like the death of an idea”, writes Polly Toynbee. The think tank was behind the annual “fat cat day” – “this year it calculated that it took the median FTSE 100 CEO less than two-and-a-half days” to earn what a median full-time employee makes in a year. UK incomes are the “second most unequal among rich countries” and now “an organisation devoted to examining these very causes and distortions of obscenely high pay is gone”.

Are you disabled and patronised? Welcome to my world
Julie Burchill in The i Paper
When I read that the NHS is to “reward people” who walk 26 miles a month, “I made a very disrespectful noise”, writes Julie Burchill. This “nanny-knows-best babyfication of the adult population” is “inappropriate” when recent headlines have exposed basic shortcomings in the health service. And “what about my lame brethren, who simply cannot walk for half an hour a day?” At least this “pets-win-prizes plan” is showing the able-bodied “how it feels to be patronised the way we cripples are”.

When did travelling on buses become so intolerable?
Patrick West on The Spectator
Nowhere is the breakdown of the social contract “more evident than in the normalisation of incivility on public transport”, writes Patrick West. “Selfish and inconsiderate behaviour” from passengers, as well as the “customary rudeness” of drivers – which “perhaps reflects how fed up they are” – are driving many of us away from public transport. Like the “broken windows” theory of New York City in the 1990s, this “intolerable experience” is a “deceptively simple indication that something is seriously amiss”.