Digitising more of the house-buying process is being explored by the government as a way to speed up transactions.
Reforming the housing sector is a key part of Labour’s plans for government.
As part of this, ministers want to modernise the “cumbersome” and paper-laden path property transactions currently have to go through.
A 12-week project to establish the “design and implementation of agreed rules on data” that will make sharing between conveyancers, lenders and others has been announced
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “It will speed up the home buying and selling process. At the moment, it’s too costly, it’s too stressful.
“Huge numbers of house sales fall through that cost the economy, around £400m, so we’re taking action on that.
“Increase protections for leaseholders as well as part of our homeownership drive to protect them as we move to, bring the leasehold system to an end completely. But it’s just one step on a wider push.”
Mr Pennycook said in announcing the plans: “Our modernisation of the system sits alongside further reforms to improve the lives of leasehold homeowners across the country, allowing them to more easily and cheaply take control of the buildings they live in and clamp down on unreasonable or extortionate charges.
“These reforms build on the government’s Plan for Change to deliver higher living standards and 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this parliament, and our ongoing efforts to protect leaseholders suffering from unfair and unreasonable practices as we work to end the feudal leasehold system for good.”
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When buying a home, conveyancing typically takes several weeks, but waiting for documents needed for property searches and other parts of the process can delay it.
Rightmove, a platform that is used by estate agents and house buyers, has said it takes an average of five months from an offer being accepted to people moving into a property.
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First, the good news for Sir Keir Starmer.
Interest rates went down a bit, Donald Trump reckons that he’s been well-behaved enough to swerve a tariff on British exports to the USA, and the Tories are dropping in the polls as their new leader hits her first hundred days.
Now, the bad news.
Growth rates are also down, inflation is up, and net migration doesn’t seem to be budging. Worst of all, Nigel Farage is grinning like the Cheshire Cat, as Reform hits the top of the opinion polls.
The prime minister’s problem – shared with most western governments – is that there won’t be growth in ageing societies without young workers from abroad. But there won’t be young workers if there are no houses, hospitals and trains for them to come to.
He plans to break through the impasse by launching (yet another) crackdown on immigration, and by streamlining the process of house buying – both measures aimed at prompting the growth promised by the chancellor.
It may even work. But as long as the voters’ attention is diverted by Donald Trump, or by Nigel Farage, or by the noise of ministerial resignations for sending racist, sexist and distasteful WhatsApp messages, he won’t get any credit for his actions.
The company said digitising the process is key to making this faster.
A “fully digitalised” home buying and selling process would mean mortgage companies and surveyors can access the information they need immediately with identity checks only carried out once, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
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Rightmove chief executive Johan Svanstrom said: “Digitising the property market is key to helping speed up the moving process.
“If the plans set out today can further the access to information and an improved transaction process, it’s also critical to drive industry-wide adoption of tech solutions and collaboration to make it a success.
“The current process also contributes to an average of more than one in five home sales falling through, and hopefully a better process can help reduce this as well.”
