Applying for a mortgage now takes minutes on a phone, but getting the keys can still take months. Two industry voices explain where technology saved time and where the process still stalls.

Lenders have spent a decade building the digital mortgage. Borrowers can apply online, upload payslips from a phone and get a decision in principle within minutes. Yet the full journey still takes months in many markets. As a result, the question is no longer whether technology helps, but which stages it has reached.

So we asked industry leaders one question: which part of the mortgage process has technology sped up, and which part is still stubbornly slow? We wanted figures on time saved where possible. Two respondents answered, one from the advice side and one from the closing table. Below, we set their replies against data from the UK, the US and Australia.

How long a digital mortgage takes today

The headline numbers show how much work is left. In the UK, mortgages take an average of 126 days from application to completion, and moving home takes about 200 days in total. Those figures come from an industry group convened by settlement platform PEXA, Mortgage Solutions reported. The group says moving from manual to digital mortgage workflows could cut that period by 53%. However, PEXA sells digital settlement tools, so its projections are not independent.

Australia shows what faster approvals look like. Broker group AFG found the time from lodgement to unconditional approval averaged 17.2 days in early 2024, a joint record, according to The Adviser. NAB’s digital mortgage product reported a median approval time of under one day. Still, approval is only part of the journey.

The front end got faster

Our first respondent works with borrowers through the application stage and pointed to document collection as the clear win.

“The part that’s definitely changed is document collection. Borrowers can now upload bank statements and payslips straight from their phones, and some lenders read those documents automatically, so missing pages are no longer an issue.

When documents can’t be read automatically, things slow down. Many self-employed clients won’t have a perfect match between their P&L, tax return and bank deposits. We had one client whose application was held up for weeks because the underwriter needed a letter explaining a large deposit.

Valuations, legal checks and anything that needs an override are still done manually. I can’t give figures on time saved or completion rates, and I’d be wary of any figure that doesn’t say which stage it measured.”

Ankit Sarawagi, Curator, CFO Matrix

His warning on figures matters for anyone judging a digital mortgage claim. A lender may report a fast decision in principle, while the full journey to completion barely changes. His self-employed example also shows where automation stops. A digital mortgage works well when income is a single payslip. It struggles when income moves through several accounts and a tax return filed months later.

Open banking can help here. Lenders that read transaction data directly can see where a large deposit came from without a letter, as our explainer on open banking describes. The PEXA group says digital source-of-funds checks could cut that stage from two to three weeks to two to three days.

The closing table still runs on paper

Our second respondent is a real estate attorney in New York, where the closing stage looks very different from the application.

“In New York, lenders have digitised their own side of the workflow: applications, disclosures and document portals. But they still expect the closing table to run on paper, and hundreds of pages of it. Borrowers and their attorneys still have to review and sign those pages in person, under strict, old-school lender guidelines. Even when the lender has its own attorney at the closing, the signed documents have to be scanned by hand and sent back to the lender for review and approval before funding.”

Gwen [SURNAME TO CONFIRM], Founder and Real Estate Attorney, Lux Law, P.C.

Her point shows that the law is no longer the main barrier to a digital mortgage closing. New York has allowed remote electronic notarisation since 1 February 2023, according to the New York State Bar Association. However, lenders set their own closing rules, and many still require wet-ink signatures and paper packages. As a result, a loan that moved quickly through underwriting can still wait on scanning and manual review before funds are released.

Where the time still goes

Taken together, the answers draw a clear line through the digital mortgage. Applications, document upload, income checks for simple cases and credit decisions have sped up. Meanwhile, valuations, legal work, exceptions and closings still depend on people and paper. In addition, every exception sends a file back into a manual queue.

Valuations are a partial exception. For lower-risk loans and remortgages, many lenders now use automated valuation models instead of sending a surveyor. That can remove days from a digital mortgage. However, purchases with high loan-to-value ratios, unusual properties and new builds still usually need a physical inspection. As a result, the borrowers who most need speed, such as first-time buyers in a chain, often get the least of it.

The same pattern appears in other lending. AI now drafts credit memos at some banks, as our report on TD Credit Assist showed, but decisions on unusual cases still need a person. Pricing and approval also differ widely by market, as our report on Revolut’s UK personal loans found.

For borrowers, the practical lesson is simple. Prepare for the slow stages early. Self-employed applicants should line up accounts, tax returns and deposit explanations before applying. Buyers should also ask their lender how it handles closings, because a digital mortgage application does not guarantee a digital closing.

What to watch next

Several signals will test the digital mortgage in 2027. In the UK, the PEXA group’s projections will face real-world tests as lenders adopt digital source-of-funds checks. US lenders, meanwhile, will show whether they accept electronic closings where state law already allows them. Australian approval data will show whether turnaround times hold as lending volumes rise.

Above all, our respondents agree on where the gap sits. Technology has fixed the front of the process. The back end, from valuations to the closing table, is where the digital mortgage still has the most time to win.

FintechBits covers payments, banking and fintech developments for readers in the US and UK. This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Views expressed are those of the FintechBits editorial team.