“It genuinely democratises the property industry”
The Smart Property Data Trust Framework sandbox is designed to create a controlled environment where organisations can test the secure sharing of property data under common standards.
The 12 month project is funded by a £742,700 award from the Government’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund and is being delivered by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers in partnership with the Open Property Data Association.
The project is looking at how property data could be reused securely by accredited parties, rather than relying on repeated document exchanges or separate integrations between individual firms.
Proptech firm Kotini was one of the first businesses to test the model, which allowed the firm to access property data from HM Land Registry, verify credentials and share that data onward while maintaining a record of its source and confirming it had not been altered.
The project said this approach could help reduce delays in the housebuying process by cutting repeated checks, duplicated requests for information and uncertainty over which version of property data is correct.
Before the sandbox, each new use case would have required a bespoke connection. Under the tested model, organisations can connect once and reuse that connection as other participants join.
The sandbox will now move on to testing practical business cases and findings from the project will be shared with the wider industry.
Kieran Witt, founder of Kotini, said: “Every time we wanted to do something new or work with another business, we were paying what I’d call an innovation tax. We weren’t spending our time improving products for customers – we were spending it dealing with different systems, different providers and lots of admin.”
“We’re the first ones there and we’re really pleased we’ve been able to prove the connection works with Land Registry data. Now, anyone else who joins later doesn’t need to build that connection again – they can just plug in.”
“It genuinely democratises the property industry. If you can build one connection instead of hundreds, it changes who is able to innovate and compete.”
Maria Harris, chair of the OPDA (pictured), said, “There’s some amazing work being done across the industry and the recent Lloyds, Connells, LMS collaboration is a great example of that. The sandbox is innovative and supports the whole ecosystem to work together in that way. Because it’s not a closed environment, anyone can plug in and test data sharing.
“While the sandbox will continue through to later this year, including further testing and collaborative hackathons, this first use case marks an important milestone. It shows that a more connected, trusted approach to property data is no longer just a policy ambition, but something that has now been proven to work in practice.”
Stephen Ward, director of strategy at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, said: “What we’ve proven with the sandbox is the ability to reuse and share data openly across the property ecosystem for the first time. This is an exciting development for the industry, and we want more organisations to follow Kotini’s lead and help us to build the trust framework, governance, and standards that will allow us to transform the home moving process.”