Chain (in selling a house)

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A chain (in the process of buying or selling a house) is a term commonly found in the UK, and it is created by a group of households which are linked in a sequence of each buying another's house and depending on all selling and buying working smoothly to let all sellers sell their current houses and all buyers buy and move to their next houses.

In a typical example, the chain functions so that, of several households (named say A, B, C, D, E, and F), A must buy B's house, so B (using the money he got from selling his house to A) can buy C's house, and so on down the chain.

This situation is notorious for being liable to "break", since, if one member of the chain cannot complete his transaction, or decides partway through not to move house, it leaves the rest of the chain powerless to complete theirs.

A chain can be circular.

Or a chain can end where:-

• A household moves into a new house.
• A household moves into a house which had been empty for a while.
• Two households amalgamate.
• All members of a household (or more usually an old sole occupant) die.

And a chain can start where:-

• A household splits: often this happens where a grown child leaves home.
• A household leaves its old house empty, sometimes for it to be demolished.

[edit] See also

Estate agent