Home buying set for digital transformation with new reform plans
The UK government has announced a significant push to modernise home buying and selling, aiming to reduce delays, lower costs and help more people onto the property ladder.
Working with the property market and HM Land Registry, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) plans to digitise transactions and cut the current five-month process. The move will streamline data sharing, introduce digital identity services and reduce paperwork, making the system fit for the 21st century.
Faster transactions, fewer failures
One in three property transactions currently fall through, costing buyers and sellers around £400 million each year. Estate agents and conveyancers also lose four million working days annually, adding up to an estimated £1 billion in wasted time.
The proposed changes include:
- Easier data sharing between key parties, including lenders, surveyors and conveyancers.
- Digital identity services to eliminate the need for repeated ID checks.
- Instant access to essential information, reducing delays and transaction failures.
- Elimination of outdated paper-based processes, replacing them with digital, machine-readable data.
By putting key property details at people’s fingertips, buyers and sellers will face fewer surprises later in the process.
A digital future for home buying
Currently, information on building control, highways and ownership is often stored in non-digital formats or lacks a standardised protocol for sharing. The new plan will ensure that all key transaction data is accessible digitally, making verifying, transferring and processing easier.
Due to seamless digital systems, the government highlights Norway’s model, where home purchases are completed within a month.
To make this a reality in the UK, MHCLG is launching:
- A 12-week project to establish new data-sharing rules for conveyancers, lenders and estate agents.
- 10-month pilot programmes, led by HM Land Registry, to help local authorities digitise more property data.
The announcement follows housing secretary Angela Rayner’s commitment to reaching the 1.5 million new homes target. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook reaffirmed the government’s focus:
“We are streamlining the cumbersome home buying process so that it is fit for the twenty-first century, helping homebuyers save money, gain time and reduce stress while also cutting the number of house sales that fall through.”
By bringing the buying process into the digital age, the government aims to put more money back into people’s pockets while boosting the economy.
