The Negotiator has been inundated with positive feedback following the Government’s announcement of major reforms to property sales and the home-buying process.
Sector leaders from estate agents, the portals, conveyancers, lenders and tech firms have called the changes a ‘vital step forward’ and ‘long overdue’.
The reforms promise to slash buying times, halve fall-throughs and save first-time buyers an average of £710. Measures include mandatory upfront information, optional binding contracts, minimum estate agent qualifications and enhanced digital tools to address what Labour’s Housing Secretary Reed calls a “broken system” that needs dragging into the modern era.
Estate agents
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Amy Reynolds, Head of Sales at Richmond Estate Agency Antony Roberts: “We warmly welcome these proposals, which recognise just how outdated and stressful the homebuying process has become. Anything that brings greater transparency and certainty to buyers and sellers is a step in the right direction.”
“Providing key information upfront will help everyone make more informed decisions, reduce fall-throughs, and restore confidence in the market. Estate agents are often caught in the middle when transactions stall because of missing information or unexpected issues – so giving buyers clarity earlier will save not only time and money, but also a lot of unnecessary frustration.”
It’s encouraging to see a genuine focus on collaboration between government, agents, conveyancers and lenders to deliver a system that truly works for today’s buyers and sellers.”
“Digitisation and clear professional standards are long overdue and will help raise the bar across the industry. It’s encouraging to see a genuine focus on collaboration between government, agents, conveyancers and lenders to deliver a system that truly works for today’s buyers and sellers.”
Andrew Groocock, COO of Estate Agency at Knight Frank: “We welcome the opportunity to speed up the transactional side of the home buying process, but putting all of the onus on estate agents is not the answer. While the proposals’ ambition is commendable, there needs to be a complete overhaul of the Land Registry so that the data on it is accurate to at least a month rather than 3-4 months delayed.”
“The ability to provide searches needs to be significantly improved, there are boroughs in London where local authority searches consistently take over 40 working days – this needs to be digitised and instantly available, but that change sits with the government to invest in the correct solution to speed things up.”
“There is a danger that the proposals simply pass all of the accountability and costs onto the vendor and estate agent. Under the current system the time delay sits between the offer acceptance and exchange period, the government’s proposals will simply shift this delay to the period before any property can be launched to market.”
We would encourage the government to consult with all those working at the sharp end of the industry.”
“We would encourage the government to consult with all those working at the sharp end of the industry in order to make meaningful, effective change which will benefit home buyers and sellers for the long term.”
Jeremy Leaf, North London Estate Agent and Former RICS Residential Chairman: “More efficiency and less waste in home moving must be welcome but not so easy to achieve in practice as these proposals are not new.”
“What we don’t want to see above all is a drop or delay in transactions which would be more costly not just for buyers and sellers but for job and social ability which is so fundamental to economic growth.”
“On the ground, as long-standing chartered surveyors and estate agents, we have found many sellers do not necessarily want to reveal ‘warts and all’ about their properties, whereas for others speed is not paramount, so will need time to adjust.”
“Sufficient capacity will be essential too in terms of numbers of suitably qualified and experienced surveyors to take on the additional workload as a significant number of additional detailed inspections will be required than at present.”
Robin Thomas, Recoco Property Search: “Having worked as an estate agent for over 30 years and for the last nine years acting as a buying agent in the West Country, I am delighted to see such a long-overdue initiative being proposed and hopefully implemented.”
“If you are buying a car or an electrical appliance, this information has to be available to a buyer right from the start. With people’s most important purchas,e the same rules should apply.”
“The average time from agreeing a sale or purchase to exchanging contracts has increased from about three weeks when I first started dealing with property transactions to over 12 weeks and sometimes much longer.”
Property search and comparison sites
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Phil Cotter, CEO, SmartSearch: “We welcome the Government’s plans for a major reform of the house buying system – which aims to cut costs, reduce delays and halve failed sales. It’s high time the UK property system was cleaned up and these plans to overhaul the buying and selling process could be a real turning point, not just for speeding up transactions and improving transparency, but for tackling the billions in dirty money that continue to distort the market.”
“The National Crime Agency estimates up to £10 billion is laundered through UK property each year. Our own analysis shows this illicit wealth has inflated house prices by around £3,000 across the UK and more than £11,000 in London, putting homeownership even further out of reach for ordinary families.”
The proposed changes won’t just speed up sales and cut costs, they will shine a light into those opaque structures that have allowed illicit wealth to distort our housing market.”
“By introducing greater upfront transparency, binding contracts and strong source-of-funds verification, the proposed changes won’t just speed up sales and cut costs, they will shine a light into those opaque structures that have allowed illicit wealth to distort our housing market. Estate agents who adopt trusted identity verifications will win credibility and customers, while helping ensure every buyer and seller can see the system is fair.”
Rob Houghton, Founder and CEO of Reallymoving: “Reform of the homebuying and selling process is long overdue and I hope this government will be bold enough to see it through. Introducing a digital property pack upfront, containing a survey, search results and other information, would help buyers make an informed decision about a property right from the start, so they’re going into the purchase with their eyes open and the transaction is far less likely to fall through.”
“Our data shows First Time Buyers currently pay £2,186 on average to buy their first home, assuming they are below the stamp duty threshold, but this could fall by around £770 to £1,416 if search and survey costs were borne by the seller. We could see increased costs incurred by sellers reflected in asking prices across the board however, as they try to recoup that expenditure.”
“It’s crucial that the survey provided by sellers is sufficiently detailed to satisfy both lenders and most homebuyers – in other words a Level 2 Homebuyer Survey. Anything less risks duplication and wasted cost.”
“There’s also a real danger that this process could hand too much power to estate agents, allowing them to dominate distribution of upfront services such as searches and surveys. Without safeguards, this could lead to inflated prices, preferred provider arrangements and opaque referral fees or kickbacks. A Code of Practice may help but this issue needs to be explicitly addressed within it.”
Portals
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Jason Tebb, President at OnTheMarket: “Further clarity and stability are essential in enabling buyers to make well-informed, viable decisions and – essentially – making progress towards a more effective system.”
“It’s only disappointing these issues haven’t been addressed earlier as in other parts of the country. However, there’s much we can learn from their successes to help expedite the process, like the Home Report in Scotland.”
“Transparency and ease of early access to key property information is a primary focus for OnTheMarket. We’re very much looking forward to working with Government and industry bodies in shaping effective reform that benefits buyers, sellers and promotes activity across the UK property market.”
Conveyancers
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at The Conveyancing Association: “The Conveyancing Association welcomes these reforms, which we and other industry stakeholders have long campaigned for, in order to deliver a better home selling and purchase experience for all.”
“By ensuring vital information is provided upfront, consumers and industry alike will benefit from greater certainty, reduced risk of fall-throughs and a faster, less stressful process. This is an important step towards the modern, transparent and efficient homebuying system that families and professionals have been calling for.”
We would urge a further step to now be made via the regulation of property agents, so they know what, and how, to deliver in this area.”
“These reforms have both the ability to enable conveyancing lawyers to be proactive, and to support estate agents to comply with the law. We would urge a further step to now be made via the regulation of property agents, so they know what, and how, to deliver in this area.”
Lucy McCallum, Head of Residential Conveyancing at WSP Solicitors: “The Government’s proposal to mandate upfront property information is a positive step towards tackling the inefficiencies and delays in the current home buying system in England and Wales. By including key details like title issues, leasehold information and any other potential issues, buyers can make more informed decisions and raise issues with their proposed lender early on to ensure they are able to proceed.”
“It also flags issues early on, giving both parties the benefit of greater transparency and certainty. If implemented properly, these reforms could help reduce transaction times and save both parties significant costs.”
“Giving buyers the option to enter into binding contracts early on in the process, before all legal checks have been completed, is unlikely to work in practice. Particularly where a buyer has a lender. If a lender’s requirements cannot be met once all due diligence has been completed, the buyers would be bound to complete, and unable to fund the purchase and they would risk losing their deposit. We would need to see more details on what is being proposed.”
Stephen Ward, Director of Strategy and External Relations at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers: “The CLC is working with others across the industry in the digital property market steering group to transform home buying and selling in the interests of individual home owners and the wider economy.”
“There is broad consensus about the changes that need to be made to deliver that transformation and the government’s support with this announcement will help deliver much-needed progress and change.”
“Buyers deserve much better information than is usually provided when they are looking for a property. That upfront information will help them make the right choice and help their conveyancer progress their purchase more speedily. Property log books are a great tool that have been shown to greatly smooth and speed up the buying and selling process.”
Roxanne Barker, CEO, Fix My Legals: “The home moving process has become utterly joyless. What should be an exciting milestone is instead a clunky, soulless, bureaucratic slog.”
“Encouraging or requiring vendors to have legal packs ready at the point of listing would be transformative. It would protect buyers, speed up sales, and finally start dragging the process into the modern era.”
Our plea to Steve Reed is – don’t tinker at the edges; don’t let this become another pile of consultations and white papers that go nowhere.”
“Our plea to Steve Reed is – don’t tinker at the edges; don’t let this become another pile of consultations and white papers that go nowhere. Be bold and for heaven’s sake, drag the home-moving process into the modern world. Behind every transaction is a person or a family with hopes, stresses and dreams. They deserve better than what we’re giving them today.”
Brokers and Lenders
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ben Thompson, Deputy CEO, Mortgage Advice Bureau: “MAB cautiously welcomes these proposed reforms to the homebuying process, which have the potential to significantly improve outcomes for home movers.”
“All too often transactions are delayed, or collapse altogether, due to lack of upfront information or unnecessary inefficiencies, causing stress for buyers and putting mortgage offers at risk.”
“Improving transparency when a property is first marketed and reducing the average transaction timeline will not only help buyers make more informed decisions, it will also ensure mortgage offers remain valid and aligned with the faster pace of the transaction.”
“We’re optimistic that the industry can find the means to ensure there is zero cost duplication in any proposed changes, especially as the headline to these changes implies cost savings.”
Tomer Aboody, Director of Specialist Lender MT Finance: “This is some positive news as these proposals would speed up the home-buying process. As we know, the current system which is often plagued by multiple delays can, and does, result in some transactions falling away.”
“The proposals to reduce costs along the way are also helpful although the potential savings are not that significant compared with the amount of stamp duty buyers need to pay. If the Government was able to combine this new financial saving with potentially some reduction in stamp duty, this could fuel activity in the market at the same time as speeding up the process.”
These suggestions are largely underwhelming, as they don’t address the main issues.”
Mark Harris, Chief Executive, SPF Private Clients: “While we fully support measures to speed up the process of buying a home, these suggestions are largely underwhelming, as they don’t address the main issues.”
“Lenders can produce mortgage offers within very short timeframes but it’s the conveyancing which can really slow down the home buying and selling process, with local searches in some areas experiencing severe delays, for example.”
“Building the 1.5 million new homes we need, speeding up the planning process, incentivising buyers and reforming stamp duty are the key measures the government needs to focus on to really make a difference.”
Proptech
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Claire Van der Zant, CEO of Novus Strategy: “The industry has been asking for more government leadership on this issue and these reforms are the electric shock that could transform the homebuying process from a frustrating, painful inconvenience into an aspirational experience not to be avoided.”
“The reforms will give the sector’s innovators confidence that there’s a common goal, with government setting clear expectations and direction.”
Timely changes
“They’re also extremely timely, given that technology has reached a level of digital maturity capable of delivering the transformation people and businesses desperately want to see. If anything, the Government is undercooking the potential benefits.”
“Cutting four weeks off transaction times is pretty conservative given how far-reaching these proposals are, and the dividend for businesses is set to run into the billions.”