Not Before Time – Plans To Modernise House Buying Process

Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook has unveiled “major new plans” to speed up and “modernise” the way homes are bought are sold.

The aim is to “make home buying fit for the 21st Century” – cutting the time it takes to process a transaction, trimming admin costs for home-movers, and helping stop transactions from falling through.

The Government is looking to other countries to see how the British way can be improved. Norway is flagged as an exemplar, where transactions typically complete in around one month (compared to nearly five months in England).

“One of the key reasons the buying and selling process can be long and frustrating is a lack of digitalisation and join up in the sector,” explains the Ministry of Housing. To fix this, official databanks will be opened up to allow “key property information” to be “shared between trusted professionals more easily”, and the idea of digital property passport is being taken seriously.

Pennycook has a vision for “a fully digitalised home buying and selling process”, with joined-up and accessible data throughout. “Clear information early on will mean there are no surprises late on in the transaction which might cause it to fall through, so instead the transaction is completed smoothly without unnecessary time, energy or money spent,” his team explains.

The Housing Ministry and HM Land Registry have just launched a 12-week project to pin-down “the design and implementation of agreed rules on data” for the property sector, aiming for a format that can be easily shared and used by conveyancers, lenders and other parties involved in a transaction.

HMLR is also cracking on with pilot schemes with various local councils to “identify the best approach to opening up more of their data and making it digital.”