Digitising house-buying process eyed as way to speed up transactions

A 12-week project to establish the “design and implementation of agreed rules on
data” that will make sharing between conveyancers, lenders and others has been
announced by the government.

Sunday 9 February 2025 14:43, UK

Digitising more of the house-buying process is being explored by the government
as a way to speed up transactions.

Reforming the housing [https://news.sky.com/topic/housing-6069] sector is a key
part of Labour’s plans for government.

As part of this, ministers want to modernise the “cumbersome” and paper-laden
path property transactions currently have to go through.

A 12-week project to establish the “design and implementation of agreed rules on
data” that will make sharing between conveyancers, lenders and others has been
announced

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips
[https://news.sky.com/sunday-morning-with-trevor-phillips]: “It will speed up
the home buying and selling process. At the moment, it’s too costly, it’s too
stressful.

“Huge numbers of house sales fall through that cost the economy, around £400m,
so we’re taking action on that.

“Increase protections for leaseholders as well as part of our homeownership
drive to protect them as we move to, bring the leasehold system to an end
completely. But it’s just one step on a wider push.”

Mr Pennycook said in announcing the plans: “Our modernisation of the system sits
alongside further reforms to improve the lives of leasehold homeowners across
the country, allowing them to more easily and cheaply take control of the
buildings they live in and clamp down on unreasonable or extortionate charges.

“These reforms build on the government’s Plan for Change to deliver higher
living standards and 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this parliament, and
our ongoing efforts to protect leaseholders suffering from unfair and
unreasonable practices as we work to end the feudal leasehold system for good.”

Read more:
Starmer vows to ‘take on NIMBYs’
[https://news.sky.com/story/sir-keir-starmer-vows-to-take-on-nimbys-and-halt-delays-for-major-building-projects-13294464]
Labour demands housing targets from councils
[https://news.sky.com/story/government-demands-immediate-mandatory-housing-plans-from-councils-to-build-1-5m-homes-13271785]
Housebuilding fight could turn ‘toxic’ for Starmer
[https://news.sky.com/story/planning-law-shake-up-starmer-has-some-big-fights-to-come-and-this-one-is-particularly-toxic-13272309]

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When buying a home, conveyancing typically takes several weeks, but waiting for
documents needed for property searches and other parts of the process can delay
it.

Rightmove, a platform that is used by estate agents and house buyers, has said
it takes an average of five months from an offer being accepted to people moving
into a property.

Presenter

First, the good news for Sir Keir Starmer.

Interest rates went down a bit, Donald Trump reckons that he’s been well-behaved
enough to swerve a tariff on British exports to the USA, and the Tories are
dropping in the polls as their new leader hits her first hundred days.

Now, the bad news.

Growth rates are also down, inflation is up, and net migration doesn’t seem to
be budging. Worst of all, Nigel Farage is grinning like the Cheshire Cat, as
Reform hits the top of the opinion polls.

The prime minister’s problem – shared with most western governments – is that
there won’t be growth in ageing societies without young workers from abroad. But
there won’t be young workers if there are no houses, hospitals and trains for
them to come to.

He plans to break through the impasse by launching (yet another) crackdown on
immigration, and by streamlining the process of house buying – both measures
aimed at prompting the growth promised by the chancellor.

It may even work. But as long as the voters’ attention is diverted by Donald
Trump, or by Nigel Farage, or by the noise of ministerial resignations for
sending racist, sexist and distasteful WhatsApp messages, he won’t get any
credit for his actions.

The company said digitising the process is key to making this faster.

A “fully digitalised” home buying and selling process would mean mortgage
companies and surveyors can access the information they need immediately with
identity checks only carried out once, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and
Local Government said.

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Rightmove chief executive Johan Svanstrom said: “Digitising the property market
is key to helping speed up the moving process.

“If the plans set out today can further the access to information and an
improved transaction process, it’s also critical to drive industry-wide adoption
of tech solutions and collaboration to make it a success.

“The current process also contributes to an average of more than one in five
home sales falling through, and hopefully a better process can help reduce this
as well.”