Swapping council houses is quite common. However, for privately owned, I think it would be frought with problems.
http://www.houseexchange.org.uk/[/QUOTE]
How so? If the usual rules of surveys, valuation, research, solicitors arranging conveyancing, etc are followed then where is the problem?
For part-exchange, a mortgage or some sort of financing would still be required, but it would be no different to a deposit being placed and the mortgage covering the remainder.
Wrong end of the stick again coathanger. I'm not on about the legals. etc. See Tony's post - immediately after OP.
Which one, precisely, the one about money offering freedom of choice? Then perhaps, you should be more precise with your vague references.
But to respond to your point, sometimes the market demands that less desirable strategies may need to be adopted.
Suppose a real potential recent problem:
I have a house for sale, but I can't find a buyer and I want to move to a different area. I can find a house that I would like to buy, but I can't raise a futher mortgage. I approach the other seller, who, I find can't find a buyer either. But they are amenable to a swap, on the basis that it makes little difference to them whether they don't have a buyer for this house or that house.