People buying a home in the last year typically spent just 33 minutes looking around the property before making what is likely to be one of the most expensive purchase decisions of their lives, according to a survey, by Aviva.

The commissioned research among 4,000 home owners, suggested that the recent strong competition seen in the housing market is forcing some buyers to make "snap decisions", with one in four (24%) of home owners saying they only made one viewing before they decided to buy.

The average amount of time that people who had bought their property six to 10 years ago estimated they spent looking round their property was 35 minutes and for those who bought 10 to 20 years ago, the typical length of time was 39 minutes.

Home owners generally said they typically had to spend around £1,000 more than they had expected on repairs and getting their new home up to scratch, once they had moved in.