Ambitious buying & selling reforms outlined

The Government has just launched two consultations on how it could change the property buying and selling process in England and Wales. It has acknowledged that the process is too slow, too costly and too fragile. 

How property is bought and sold hasn’t fundamentally changed for decades, so reforms are long overdue, especially as we rely more on digital solutions and even artificial intelligence (AI) for better efficiencies. The Government is even looking to the Scottish way of buying and selling for inspiration, as more upfront information and binding contracts are already resulting in fewer fall throughs North of the border.

The Government consultations seek to address several elements of the buying and selling process, with encouraging claims that reform could cut transaction times by around four weeks and reduce fall throughs from 1 in 3 transactions to 1 in 7. It also says first-time buyers would be expected to save around £710 per transaction, while home movers could save £400.

Everyone in the UK is invited to participate so the Government can gauge opinion and obtain feedback, including home movers and the general public. If you’d like to have your say, you have until 21st December 2025 to complete this online survey.

To give you a better idea of what might change in the future, we have broken down the proposed reforms into key points.

More upfront information about a property: the Government would like sellers and estate agents, by law, to provide more early information about a property when it is launched to market. This is likely to include searches, a property condition assessment  and the type of data usually captured by the TA6 property information form. This would be in addition to the current material information requirement. A separate consultation on the clarity of material information is running in tandem.

Benefits: more upfront information will allow buyers to make informed decisions earlier in the purchasing process, instead of having to pull out of a transaction due to information only revealed later in conveyancing. 

Easier access to digital information: proposals suggest more property information should be available as digitalised property data, such as title deeds, TA6 and TA10 forms, and searches. There would also be a push towards common data standards adopted across the transaction process.

Benefits: This would make it much quicker for agents, conveyancers and mortgage lenders to recover documents, share vital details and provide updates, reducing the overall transaction time.

Early binding agreements: the Government is looking to Scotland where early binding agreements have reduced the number of sales that fall through. It feels buyers armed with enough upfront information will be willing to legally commit to a purchase before exchange, with a financial penalty for those who do back out.

Benefits: early binding agreements are designed to encourage only the most serious of buyers to enter into a transaction, increasing the likelihood completion will be reached and in a quicker timeframe. 

Improving professional standards in estate agency: the Government has commented that estate agency is a ‘lightly regulated’ industry and while the majority of professionals deliver a good service, not every home mover has a positive experience. A new agency Code of Practice is being suggested, alongside the mandatory requirement for estate and letting agents to hold a professional qualification in order to practice. The Government also wants to make it easier for movers to choose an estate agent and conveyancer based on their specialism, track record, speed and services.

Benefits: compulsory qualifications and a Code of Practice will allow professional agents to thrive and bring certainty that other agents involved in a chain are working to the same high standards. Reforms could also include an accreditation system that indicates an agent’s professional services, allowing movers to choose a quality service.

Digital property packs: the Government is proposing that every home has a digital property pack when it comes to market. This would contain information an agent and conveyancer currently spends time gathering once a memorandum of sale is issued. A standardised set of data would be agreed and may include title details, council tax band and local broadband connectivity.

Benefits: a digital property pack would avoid the need for homeowners to keep stacks of paper documents. Additionally, a digital property pack could be updated and added to over time, rather than be created from scratch every time the dwelling was sold. Having information immediately available would also reduce the conveyancing timeframe.

Streamlining conveyancing: the conveyancing process has lengthened over the years and can be the main source of moving delays. The Government wants to streamline and simplify conveyancing, supporting the greater adoption of AI conveyancing technology.

Benefits: more automation and less duplication has the potential to reduce the transactional process by weeks.

Next steps & timescales

The Government will review the responses once the consultation deadline has passed, using the feedback to set out a roadmap for reform, due for publication this winter. The ambition is to implement changes in this current parliament.

We fully support future reforms as we know the time, financial and emotional investment expected of our clients. Feel free to contact us to see how we are already working towards faster, more secure sales.