The Six-Hour Proposal Window: What the Data Actually Shows

What the research found

In July 2026, Acaboom published analysis of 123,010 market appraisal proposals sent by UK estate agents during the first six months of the year. The central finding was straightforward: 35.9 percent of proposals were delivered more than six working hours after the valuation appointment took place.

Of those late proposals, 18.2 percent took more than two working days to arrive. Nearly 4,800 proposals, representing 3.9 percent of the total, were not sent until five or more working days after the appointment. The timing data itself does not tell us whether those sellers had already decided which agent to instruct.

The study covered agents across every region of England, Wales and Scotland, making it one of the largest analyses of post-valuation behaviour in the UK market to date.

Why Acaboom uses six hours

Acaboom says its previous analysis found proposals sent within six working hours were 73 percent more likely to convert into an instruction than proposals sent more than 24 hours later. That is an association reported by the vendor; the published material does not establish that faster sending caused the higher conversion.

A reasonable interpretation is that proposal timing matters during an active evaluation period, but the research does not isolate the mechanism. Faster agencies may differ from slower agencies in other ways that also affect conversion.

The regional picture

The research identified meaningful differences in response time across the UK. The North West recorded the fastest median turnaround at 2 hours and 41 minutes. The West Midlands and East of England performed similarly, at 2 hours 49 minutes and 2 hours 55 minutes respectively.

London agents took a median of 4 hours and 2 minutes, placing them in the slower half of the regional table despite operating in the highest-value market. Scotland recorded the slowest turnaround at 5 hours and 21 minutes, nearly twice the time of the fastest region.

Every reported regional median sat within six working hours. The regional comparison describes turnaround speed; it does not show when an individual seller's evaluation closes or what caused the eventual instruction decision.

What sellers do after the appointment

Separate Acaboom research from May 2026 offers useful context for why proposal timing carries so much weight. Analysis of anonymised interactions with their AI Concierge tool found that sellers continue comparing agents and questioning proposals long after the valuation appointment ends.

More than half of the interactions analysed related to pricing, fees, marketing strategy or contractual terms. Sellers were asking how valuations had been calculated, whether asking prices were realistic, and how confident agents were in achieving the figures they had recommended.

These interactions show that at least some sellers continued asking questions after the valuation. They provide context for the timing study, but they do not prove that the appointment is never the decision point or that earlier proposals cause instructions.

The gap that remains

The proposal timing research measures what happens after an agent has already attended a valuation. It does not address what happens before. The valuation appointment is itself downstream of an earlier decision: which seller enquiries were worth responding to quickly, which deserved a valuation booking, and which were likely to result in an instruction at all.

An agent can send every post-valuation proposal within six hours without knowing, from this study alone, how ready each seller was to instruct before the appointment. Proposal timing is one measured part of a wider funnel.

The H1 2026 data shows that 35.9% of the proposals in Acaboom's dataset were sent after six working hours. It does not show that 35.9% of agencies lost instructions as a result. A separate question is what happens before the valuation appointment is even booked.