The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology has published a roadmap for open property which it says sets out “a clear and credible pathway to transform the UK’s home buying process”.
The Open Property Roadmap was commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to enable the digitalisation of the home buying and selling process, and signals the next phase of the UK’s Smart Data initiative, in an extension of the Open Banking and Open Finance schemes already in place.
The roadmap demonstrates how Smart Data principles, based on secure, consent-driven and interoperable data sharing, can transform the property transaction lifecycle by reducing delays, improving transparency, and strengthening trust.
The property roadmap is the first Smart Data coalition of its kind beyond financial services, with the coalition bringing together leaders from financial services, property, technology, government and regulators.
DBT commissioned CFIT to convene the coalition to develop a strategic roadmap for progressing towards an Open Property Smart Data Scheme, with home buying as the flagship use case.
Coalition participants include representatives from high street and specialist lenders, national and regional conveyancing firms, estate agency groups, property technology and data providers, search providers, surveyors, and public bodies including HM Land Registry (HMLR).
DBT leads the Smart Data programme, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) leads the home buying and selling reform programme, and HMLR holds core data on property ownership and title. Improving how trusted information flows across the property ecosystem supports both economic productivity and market transparency, CFIT explained in a statement announcing the initiative.
“This breadth of participation has been important in surfacing barriers and opportunities that span the full home buying and selling journey rather than reflecting any single part of the market,” CFIT said.
“The roadmap shows how we move from diagnosis of this economically significant challenge to delivery. It identifies the critical datasets, standards, governance frameworks, and commercial enablers required to create a fully digital, end-to-end home buying journey.”
CFIT CEO Anna Wallace said: “The UK’s home buying process is too slow, fragmented and stressful for consumers, with transactions taking months to complete and too many collapsing before completion. This roadmap shows there is a clear and credible pathway to progress through smarter, more secure and interoperable use of data.”
CFIT said the timing of the roadmap corresponds with a level of digital maturity across the property sector where coordinated change is now practical. Investment in digital systems by lenders, conveyancers, estate agents and data providers means the underlying infrastructure to support trusted data reuse is more widely in place than at any previous point.
“What has been missing is not digitalisation itself, but the coordination layer that connects these capabilities across the journey,” CFIT said. “Open Property is designed to provide that coordination.”
The “defining challenge” for progress is to reduce the time it takes to complete a transaction, CFIT explained.
“This is the central obstacle in a system that processes around 1.1 million transactions each year, worth nearly £380 billion, yet one that remains constrained by fragmented, paper-based processes. Today, less than 1% of the data required to buy a home is fully digitised, meaning information is repeatedly requested, verified, and re-shared across multiple parties – driving delay, duplication, and uncertainty at every stage.
“The consequences are significant. Approximately 530,000 transactions fail each year, costing consumers around £560 million in wasted fees and up to £950 million across the wider economy. By enabling the creation and sharing of verified digital property information upfront, the approach set out in the Roadmap directly targets these inefficiencies. This will help to prevent avoidable delays, reduce uncertainty, and accelerate decision-making across the transaction lifecycle.”
The roadmap sets out how CFIT envisages the move from diagnosis to delivery. Private sector funding has been secured to begin building a solution, initially focusing on the development of prototypes and proofs of concept, before live testing smart data solutions across the home buying journey and assessing the impact before advising on further policy recommendations to support adoption at scale.
Wallace added: “This milestone also demonstrates the power of CFIT’s coalition model to tackle systemic challenges that no single organisation can solve alone – bringing together industry, government and regulators to align around practical, deliverable solutions.”
Baroness Lloyd, the minister for the digital economy, said: “Today’s Open Property Roadmap marks an important step in delivering this government’s ambition for a world leading Smart Data economy. By bringing together industry, regulators and policymakers, CFIT has demonstrated how we can tackle complex, real-world challenges through collaboration and innovation.
“This work is not just about improving the home buying process – it is about building the foundations of a modern, data-enabled economy. The coalition model pioneered by CFIT provides practical insights that can inform the government’s implementation of the UK’s Smart Data Strategy, demonstrating how policy ambition can be tested and progressed in real‑world sectors.”
Work on the roadmap will commence in the summer.