The actual official government registry part of the process is negligible.
What takes the time is lawyers talking to each other about god knows what, for months on end, for no apparent reason. My last house sale in the UK took about 4 months to go through. I am glad I don’t live there any more.
I'd love it to be faster, but (when I bought in the UK) a lot of the things my solicitor checked were things that I'd definitely want to know before handing over money:
Whether the seller actually owns the property or lease, if there are other people who would have a valid claim on the land/building (or historical covenants that would prevent the construction of the building there etc). For leasehold, verify how long is remaining and so on.
Environmental information (whether the property is built on land that regularly floods, whether the site has a history of subsidence that could cause a significant risk to the building etc).
Also, if you're buying with a mortgage, the mortgage company are going to want to have a look at the property to know that they're going to get their money back if you default on the mortgage and they have to sell it themselves.
What takes the time is lawyers talking to each other about god knows what, for months on end, for no apparent reason. My last house sale in the UK took about 4 months to go through. I am glad I don’t live there any more.