Open consultation

Home buying and selling reform

Updated 20 October 2025

This consultation seeks views on proposals to improve to the home buying and selling process. 

Geographical scope

We are inviting perspectives from across the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).   

Body responsible for the consultation

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

Duration

This consultation will last for 12 weeks from 6 October to 29 December 2025. 

Enquiries

For any enquiries about the consultation please email homebuyingandselling@communities.gov.uk.

How to respond

Respond to the consultation by completing the online survey.

Alternatively you can email your response to the questions in this consultation to homebuyingandselling@communities.gov.uk.

If you are responding in writing, please make it clear which questions you are responding to. 

Written responses should be sent to: 

Home Buying and Selling Consultation, 
Attn: Homeownership Division,  
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street, 
Westminster, 
London, 
SW1P 4DF

When you reply confirm whether you are replying as an individual or submitting an official response on behalf of an organisation. You should also include:  

• your name
• your position (if applicable)
• the name of organisation (if applicable)
• an address (including post code) 
• an email address
• a contact telephone number

Our current home buying and selling system is not working

Buying a home is for many people the most important purchase of their lives. Each year, around 1.2 million residential property transactions take place in the UK with support from estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors, mortgage lenders, and many others across the professional sector^{[footnote 1]}.

The process underpins the wider housing market and carries significant economic weight, contributing around £100bn annually to the UK economy and employing 1.2m people^{[footnote 2]}.

A well-functioning system allows people to move into the right homes at the right time, enables households to put down roots in a community and supports labour mobility by making it easier to relocate for jobs. Its impact also extends beyond housing into sectors such as removals, construction, retail, and commercial property. Ensuring the process is swift, seamless, and reliable, therefore matters not just for individuals but for the economy as a whole.

However, the current home buying and selling process is long, complicated and frustrating. It takes an average of 120 days to complete once the buyer’s offer has been accepted^{[footnote 3]}, and transaction times have increased by 60% since to 2007^{[footnote 4]}. Around 1 in 3 transactions fail, costing buyers and sellers around £400m per year in wasted costs^{[footnote 5]}. Older people often face particular challenges when looking to move or downsize with lengthy and uncertain processes deterring them from selling homes that no longer meet their needs.

These inefficiencies have consequences for the housing market and broader economy. Slow transactions reduce the demand for and the supply of homes, contributing to housing shortages and affordability pressures. Bottlenecks restrict the jobs market by making it harder for individuals to relocate to advance their careers. Sellers, especially older people or those looking to trade down, are often deterred by the hassle and uncertainty of the process, which in turn means fewer homes are listed.   

A key reason for these inefficiencies is that consumers and professionals do not have access to the right information at the right time. Problems such as damp or a lack of planning permission for alterations often only emerge after an offer has been accepted. Progress is further hampered by the lack of digitalisation across the process, with many steps still reliant on paperwork and disconnected systems. Even once a sale progresses, consumers often face months without updates and lose thousands of pounds if their chain collapses. Frustration is compounded by the lack of clearly defined standards for some property professionals, meaning buyers and sellers may not receive the service they deserve or know who to turn to when things go wrong. 

Other countries show that the system can be better. In Norway, transactions complete in four weeks or less, with digitisation driving estimated savings of up to £1 billion over 10 years. Even within the UK, in Scotland upfront information and more binding contracts are already resulting in fewer fall throughs.  Many countries avoid the complexity of leasehold by using forms of commonhold, where standardised terms set out in legislation make rights and obligations clear, leading to simpler, cheaper conveyancing and faster transactions. While systems cannot be copied wholesale, there are clear lessons for our property system.

A vision for the future

We want to deliver a faster, more reliable home buying and selling system, driven by informed consumers, innovative technology and high-standard professional services.   

Buyers, sellers and property professionals should have the right information at the right time, making transactions simpler and faster. Consumers should understand the role of property professionals, be able to compare firms’ expertise and performance, and know that their estate agent meets defined professional standards, which help transactions run smoothly and support informed decisions.  

Technology must underpin this change. Consistent, trusted data and digital tools will allow consumers to complete tasks and track progress in real time, wherever they are. We also want to give consumers greater certainty through earlier binding agreements.  

Together, the proposals below could create a system that is more streamlined, less stressful, and fit for the future. These reforms would support the wider government agenda to unlock housing supply, improve affordability, and support the delivery of 1.5 million homes over the next parliament. A modernised home buying and selling system is essential to achieving this ambition.

Our approach

We are consulting on proposals to deliver the vision above and address the longstanding issues with our home buying and selling. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we will publish a roadmap setting out how government will transform home buying and selling over the course of this parliament.

Previous attempts to improve the process did not deliver lasting change. We want to ensure future reforms are practical, enforceable, and built to last, and that both consumers and professionals can be assured that the system will change in a meaningful and sustainable way. That is why we believe a roadmap which sets out clear implementation plans for our commitments in the years to come is necessary.  

We recognise the proposals below represent a significant change for the sector and are therefore consulting to ensure we have sought input from professionals, consumers and the general public before publishing a finalised roadmap. This consultation will seek views over a 12 week period and a roadmap will be published in winter 2025 to 2026.  

The territorial extent of any future reforms will depend on consultation outcomes and any subsequent legislation. We recognise that housing and conveyancing systems differ across the UK, with a distinct framework in Scotland. As part of this consultation process we invite perspectives from across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to help shape finalised proposals.

References to individual companies or products are not endorsements but are illustrative examples of innovation. There are many other organisations with products and services comparable to those referenced in this document and we are keen for all relevant organisations to engage with our consultation.

Consultation questions

Question 1 

Are you responding as an individual or organisation? 

Question 2 

If responding as an individual - what is your name? 

Question 3 

If responding on behalf of an organisation - what is the name of your organisation and what is your role? 

Question 4 

What type of organisation are you responding on behalf of – estate agent, surveyor, conveyancer, professional body, developer, other?

Objectives for home buying and selling reform 

We believe a future home buying and selling system should be built around the following objectives: 

• Faster, more reliable transactions – enabled by better digital tools, streamlined processes, and reduced repetition 

• Reduced fall throughs and risks, including those caused by property chains – giving consumers and professionals greater clarity  

• High professional standards – ensuring competence and accountability across the sector 

• Better informed consumers – through improved education and transparency 

• Trust and confidence in the system – leading to higher satisfactions and a more resilient market

Case studies: international comparisons

These examples are in addition to the examples of Norway and Scotland referenced in the introduction to this document.  

In Australia, homes can be purchased through an end-to-end digital process operated by the online property completion platform provider Property Exchange Australia Ltd (PEXA).  

Finland’s digital real estate system, Dias, enables customers to complete their transaction digitally, including signing all documents and contracts online. Transactions are completed in around 2 weeks.  

In line with their E-Residency system, Estonia’s home buying and selling system is highly digitalised and the Estonian Land Registry is wholly online. The system is supported by key digital infrastructure, including digital signatures and interoperable services.

Consultation questions

Question 5

Do you agree with the proposed objectives for reforming the home buying and selling system?   

Question 6 

Are there any objectives you think should be changed, removed, or added?

Ongoing work

The reforms in this consultation would build on the steps government has already taken towards reforming and digitalising the home buying and selling system:

• working with HM Land Registry, we have launched a series of pilots with local authorities to open up and digitalise property data that is vital to the home buying and selling process
• we have committed to introducing common data standards into the home buying and selling sector, creating clear common rules for data accuracy so it is reliable and can be easily shared between property professionals including conveyancers and lenders without the need for repeated verification
• we are working to enable the use of trusted identities across the UK economy by setting a framework of standards and governance for digital identity services, underpinned by measures contained in the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
• led by HM Land Registry, we are implementing an ambitious geospatial data programme to make local charge data more widely available. By September 2025, 127 local authorities had transferred to the Local Land Charges Register, with 3 more in the pipeline.  
• continuing to fund the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team, the lead enforcement authority for the estate agent sector, and regularly engaging them to determine how best to address specific sector issues such as conditional selling
• implementing the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act to ensure that leasehold and freehold estate homeowners can more quickly and affordably source property information which is necessary to sell their homes. When enacted, these measures will help streamline the sales process for leasehold and freehold estate properties

Requiring upfront property information

A recent poll of home movers showed that no more than 2% believed they had received sufficient information prior to offer. Upfront information contributes to faster, more certain transactions in Scotland, and pilots in England suggest early searches have the potential to increase the speed of the average transaction by four weeks^{[footnote 6]}.

In the future sellers and estate agents could take responsibility for ensuring comprehensive information is available at the point of listing. As a first step, we are supporting estate agents to meet their legal responsibilities on material information by consulting on how material information should be presented in property listings alongside this consultation.  

We are interested in introducing a mandatory requirement for sellers to work with conveyancers and surveyors to carry out searches and a property condition assessment prior to listing. We recognise this would represent a significant change, so it would not happen immediately. We would work with industry to understand how and when this should be introduced.  

Upfront information could go beyond what the law currently requires in terms of ‘material information’ in property listings. We propose requiring a standardised, easy-to-digest set of data at the point of listing.

This could include key facts such as:

• tenure
• council tax band
• EPC rating
• property type

It could also include legal and transactional information like:

• title information
• seller ID verification
• leasehold terms
• building safety data

It could also cover:

• standard searches (local authority, drainage and water, environmental, and locality-specific risks such as mining or chalk)
• property information (such as that captured in the TA6 form)
• a property condition assessment tailored to the property age and type

Additional details such as service charges, planning consents, flood risk, chain status, and a clear floor plan could also be made available. 

Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we will explore legislative options for requiring sellers to gather and provide this comprehensive property information, and for estate agents to include it in listings. This would ensure compliance and give buyers access to information that could impact their decision. Consultations would be held prior to legislation to ensure the benefits of this change, specifically improved efficiency and reduced falls throughs, are felt by all parties involved in the process.  

We recognise that previous initiatives, such as Home Information Packs, faced challenges around trust, reliance, and outdated information. Our approach would address these issues by drawing data from trusted sources, underpinned by clear standards, and updated as needed.

The mechanisms for doing this could include:

• leveraging real-time sources, for example from HM Land Registry
• free refreshes from search providers
• setting standard validity periods, for example 6 months for searches.

A minimum standard for data provenance would ensure reliability and consistency. Information would be presented in a standardised, easy-to-digest format, with guidance on liability and verification to ensure critical data is professionally validated, not solely reliant on seller declarations.

Case studies: commissioning property searches upfront

Optimus Accelerate, a service provided by the Landmark Information Group, enables property searches on properties to be ordered as soon as a buyer or seller instructs their legal representative, rather than waiting until later in the process when a draft contract pack is prepared.

By bringing this step forward, the service shortens the time taken to gather essential information about a property, increases the speed from conveyancer instruction to completion by four weeks on average, and reduces the risk of transactions falling through.

Consultation questions

Question 7 

Do you agree that there should be a mandatory requirement for sellers and estate agents to provide comprehensive upfront information? 

Question 8 

Do you agree that this should include a requirement to order property searches and undertake a property condition report? 

Question 9 

What steps should government take to ensure that conveyancing lawyers, estate agents and surveyors have the capacity and capability to implement this change? 

Question 10 

What resources and additional training would be needed in order to implement these changes?

Professionalising property agents

Estate agents play a pivotal role in the home buying and selling process and many provide an excellent service.

However, too many are failing consumers. Compared to other property professionals and international norms, the sector is lightly regulated. This contributes to low public trust scores with only 37% of people expressing trust in the profession (November 2024 Ipsos MORI Veracity Index).

Low trust, a lack of qualifications, and the absence of minimum professional standards increase the industry’s burdens, creating additional legal and administrative work for conveyancers. 

We propose introducing a Code of Practice setting out the minimum standards expected of all residential property agents, including estate, letting, and managing agents. We will explore the most effective delivery options for maximising the impact of the Code but expect that National Trading Standards, the redress schemes, professional bodies and the courts would use it to drive up standards. 

On 4 July 2025 the government consulted on the introduction of mandatory minimum qualifications for managing agents of leasehold, commonhold, and share of freehold properties and estate managers of freehold estates. This consultation closed on 26 September, and we are analysing responses.

The consultation set out a preferred option to deliver qualifications through government appointing designated professional bodies to implement the qualification requirements, supported by local authority enforcement. We propose extending this model to estate and lettings agents and as a first step could consult on mandatory qualifications for these sectors. Trade-offs, including potential impacts on consumers and agents (for example, costs), will be carefully assessed.

Subject to consultation outcomes, we propose to legislate for mandatory qualifications when a suitable legislative vehicle is available and consider legislation to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice.

Alongside this, we would improve consumer education so the public understands agent’s roles and knows where to turn if things go wrong.

We will also work with the Competition and Markets Authority to ensure their new powers under the Digital Markets Consumers and Competition Act (2024) support high standards in this sector. Further interventions would remain under consideration if needed to raise standards.

Case studies: estate agency in Denmark 

In Denmark, estate agents must be approved and registered by the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen). To join the register, they must have formal qualifications and be able to demonstrate professional competence.

Estate agents are responsible for preparing a sales report, building survey, electricity survey and energy report for each property they are selling.

Consultation questions

Question 11 

Do you agree that we should intervene to drive up standards amongst, and improve trust in, property agents?

Question 12 

Do you agree with our proposal to bring forward a Code of Practice on a non-statutory basis, and to legislate to put this on a statutory footing in future if necessary? 

Question 13 

Do you agree with our proposal to consult on mandatory qualifications for estate and lettings agents? 

Question 14 

Are there additional interventions you think government should take to drive up standards amongst property agents? 

Question 15 

Are there any other areas across the property agent sector that needs to be monitored or regulated in order to improve the customer journey?

Digital property logbooks and packs

Digital property logbooks store current and historic information on a property, giving homeowners control of their data and reducing transaction risk by verifying its provenance. This allows property professionals to progress transactions faster and with greater confidence in the information provided. They also reduce the need for home owners to hold on to reams of paper documents. Digital property packs (also known as ‘sales packs’, ‘sale-ready packs’ etcetera) are products that provide consumers with digital property information, upfront in the sales process so they have what they need before offer.

Widespread use of these tools would standardise upfront property information, reducing the need for conveyancers to assemble this information from scratch each time a property is marketed. In some countries, digital packs or logbooks are mandatory, for example, in France, they are required for all new build properties.   

New build homes offer a clear opportunity to lead adoption of digital property logbooks and upfront information. Developers already hold comprehensive property data, making it straightforward to provide verified, standardised information from the outset. This is one of the reasons it can be faster to purchase a new build property. Embedding digital property packs in new build transactions would deliver faster, more certain sales, set a benchmark for the wider market, and support the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next parliament.  

We propose that digital property packs should become a standard feature of property transactions in the UK. To achieve this, we are seeking views on whether government should consider legislating to require their use. Ahead of that, we would work with the sector to encourage adoption, build on the self-regulatory approach established by the Residential Log Book Association, and remove policy barriers to wider use.   

To support consistency and consumer confidence, we would explore mandating a standardised core data set for all digital packs, linked to the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Land Registry records. Packs must also be interoperable, integrating via APIs with conveyancing platforms, local authority systems, retrofit tools, and planning applications to enable live data and seamless transactions. 

Given the sensitive nature of the data held by these packs, robust security and data privacy standards will be essential. We would work with industry to establish and evolve security protocols and approval criteria for providers.

Case studies: digital property packs 

Moverly have developed a platform to help estate agents and sellers gather the information they need to sell their property quickly and easily.

The app automatically collects data from a range of digital sources to gather information about the property including title details, council tax band, local broadband connectivity and more.

This information forms the beginnings of a Digital Sale Ready Pack, and is further enhanced with legal searches, further title documentation, additional legal property information and automated insights, which can then be shared with buyers and legal professionals to accelerate and streamline the sales process.

Consultation questions

Question 16 

Do you agree that government should aim to support the wider use of digital property logbooks and packs?

Question 17 

If yes, what do you think would drive their wider adoption? How could government support this and do you think that legislation might be needed to bring about this change? 

Question 18 

What risks would need to be considered when creating and storing digital logbooks?

Binding conditional contracts

Currently, buyers or sellers can withdraw from a transaction any time between offer acceptance and the exchange of contracts, often at significant cost to the opposite party.

Conditional contracts can be used to make transactions binding at an early stage. Withdrawing after a binding agreement has been signed typically incurs a financial penalty, for example the loss of the buyer’s deposit.

In the long-term, we could explore whether greater use of binding agreements could deliver benefits for consumers. This would bring our system more in line with jurisdictions like Scotland and the United States, and significantly reduce the likelihood of transactions failing before completion. More binding transactions in Scotland are part of the reason that only 9% of their transactions fall through.

Any future consideration of wider use would need to follow the introduction of comprehensive upfront information, as it would not be reasonable to require buyers to commit to a binding property transaction under a system where they do not have access to detailed property information. 

Case studies: innovative reservation agreements 

When a property is listed through Redbrik’s Securemove process, the seller instructs a solicitor and prepares key legal documents upfront, so essential information is ready for buyers from day one. When a sale is agreed, the buyer enters into a reservation agreement and pays a non-refundable fee, which secures the property and grants them a period of exclusivity while the sale progresses. If the buyer withdraws, the fee is retained, but if the seller withdraws, it is fully refunded.

This approach brings legal professionals into the process at instruction, reduces delays, and gives both parties greater certainty.

Trials have shown that this can cut fall-through rates by up to 30% and help transactions complete up to 33% faster.

Consultation questions

Question 19 

Do you agree that government should support mechanisms to make property transactions more binding at an earlier stage?

Question 20 

What do you think is the most effective means of doing this – incentivise estate agents to offer this as a service, raise consumer awareness of binding agreements, legislate to require their use in property transactions etcetera?

Question 21 

What would be appropriate costs or penalties for failure to comply with binding contracts? 

Question 22 

Would there be any listed exceptions, or certain situations, for binding contracts not being applied?

Increasing consumer education and transparency 

Consumers currently have limited support when it comes to choosing appropriate home buying and selling services. The available information can be overwhelming or difficult to make sense of, leaving consumers with a poor understanding of how to assess whether a particular conveyancer or estate agent offers the right service for their needs.

We propose exploring options for publishing transparent information on estate agents and conveyancers, indicating things like:

• professional specialisms (for example, local expertise, leasehold)
• performance (for example, speed and quality of service)
• process (for example, do they support digital practices such as providing a digital property pack or logbook)

Not only would this support consumers to choose the appropriate services, it would also provide the opportunity to compare services through a trusted source and ensure consumers are paying a fair price. Existing support services of this sort have been shown to save consumers an average of £490 per transaction.  

We are interested in additional measures that could support consumers to identify quality services. For example, we could publish a charter that sets out the simple steps property professionals and consumers can follow to help transactions proceed efficiently.

A charter could direct sellers to gather upfront property information, buyers to ensure they understand their finances before making an offer on a property or conveyancers to share information promptly with lenders.

This could be accompanied by an accreditation system which indicates professional services that are abiding by the principles in the charter so consumers can identify quality services.

Case studies: improving the visibility of transaction progress across chains 

ViewMyChain’s national property infrastructure maps the connected transactions that form a property chain. Estate agents, conveyancers and consumers can see how individual transactions relate to each other, with automatic updates as progress or changes occur across the chain.

This broader visibility enables faster, clearer updates for clients and flags points of delay that require action or intervention. By revealing the structure and status of the wider chain, this also reduces uncertainty, supports coordination, and helps speed up the home-moving process.

Consultation questions

Question 23 

Do you agree that publishing information on the services of property professionals would improve home buying and selling by supporting consumer choice and driving competition?

Question 24 

What information would you want to see included in a service of this type?

Question 25 

Do you think a charter as set out above would be useful in supporting consumers to identify quality property professional services?

Streamlining transactions 

The role of conveyancers has expanded significantly in recent years and as a result, this part of the home moving process is taking far longer than it once did, taking an average of 60% longer in 2025 than it did in 2007^{[footnote 7]}.

This is partly a result of newer regulations such as those that set the legal framework for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) which means consumers face duplicative checks from conveyancers, lenders, estate agents and other property professionals during a single transaction.

Property titles have also become increasingly complex, with issues such as managed freehold properties and estate rent charges becoming more common.

This directly adds to the workload of conveyancers but also means lenders have additional requirements for conveyancers to manage their risk in lending against properties with these terms.  

We propose streamlining and simplifying conveyancing to ensure that consumers and professionals do not face unnecessary delays and duplication.

We suggest beginning this process by streamlining AML checks so that consumers do not face repeated checks during a single transaction. We could also explore opportunities to support AI conveyancing technology to save conveyancers time.

Consultation questions

Question 26 

Do you agree that AML checks should be streamlined?

Question 27 

How can government most effectively support the application of AI conveyancing technology? 

Question 28 

What else do you think government should do to streamline the conveyancing process?

Next steps for digitalisation

We want to deliver a home buying and selling system that makes full use of digital information and processes to deliver a customer experience fit for the 21st century.

We want to see innovative technology that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI), underpinned by data that is consistent, trusted, and shareable across the market.

We will build on innovation developed already by the home buying and selling tech sector such as:

• Coadjute’s digital platform which facilitates data sharing and makes transactions more transparent for consumers
• Orbital’s AI technology for carrying out diligence on property transactions

We propose promoting this innovation by building on the steps we are already taking to make key property information more accessible, ensuring this data can be shared between professionals, and driving forward adoption of trustworthy digital identity services.  

Specifically, this could include: 

• supporting the implementation of a set of data standards for governing home buying and selling data 
• working with the sector to support field trials of a data trust framework to guarantee data provenance

Local authority data pilots

Building on the findings of our local authority data pilots (concluding in 2026) to deliver a sustainable property searches market that:

• delivers reliable, accessible data at a fair price
• ensures those supplying and maintaining this data operate to high standards as part of a system that sustains them
• allows them to invest in and improve their data

Modern Industrial Strategy

In line with government’s Modern Industrial Strategy, we are investigating the potential to explore and establish a Smart Data scheme in relation to home buying and selling data, to enable secure sharing of data between organisations and trusted third parties at the customer’s request.  

Digital verification services

Enabling the use of trusted digital verification services which will reduce the need for buyers and sellers to onerously prove their identities multiple times to multiple professionals.

This will streamline the home buying and selling process by reducing duplication and delays and ensure that all key market players including conveyancers and mortgage lenders, are brought along with the digitalisation journey. We are working closely across government on trust services and e-signatures.

The Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) recently held a call for views on the adoption of trust services which closed on 20 September 2025, and responses to this consultation will be relevant as Qualified Electronic Signatures are often used to enable property transactions.

Digital Property Market Steering Group

Continuing our work with the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) to accelerate the adoption of digital technology across the property market while ensuring it is transparent, secure and consumer friendly.

The DPMSG comprises 20 industry representatives, regulatory bodies and government departments.  

Digital Property Information Protocol

Supporting the adoption of DPMSG’s Digital Property Information Protocol.

This is an online protocol that will describe a digital end-to-end property buying and selling process and explain the roles and responsibilities of each profession at each stage.

The aim is that it will encourage adoption of digital processes and access to digitised data sources as they become available, with the intention of speeding up the property buying and selling process and provide a more transparent and consumer-centric process. 

Consultation questions

Question 29 

Do you agree that this is the correct direction of travel? 

Question 30 

Is there anything else that government should be doing to promote digitalisation of the property sector?

Leasehold sales information

Many leaseholders face persistent delays and high costs when trying to sell their properties.

Currently, freeholders and managing agents are responsible for providing essential sales information, but they often have little incentive to do so efficiently.

In fact, they may benefit from delaying the process, as it allows them to charge high, unregulated fees for information packs. Homeowners living on private or mixed tenure estates, who contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of communal areas, can face similar challenges when trying to obtain relevant information from their estate manager.  

Measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LFRA) seek to speed up the provision of information for leaseholders and homeowners on private or mixed tenure estates who wish to sell their property, and protect sellers from unreasonable fees when requesting this information.  

We will enact this legislation by: 

• engaging stakeholders to collaboratively define and refine these measures 
• defining clear standards for request content, timelines, and fee caps 
• coordinating with tribunals and redress schemes to prepare enforcement infrastructure to deliver compliance and provide redress for delays or excessive charges 
• publishing guidance to ensure transparency and consistency 
• enacting the legislation, communicate commencement dates, and establish monitoring mechanisms to track compliance

Impact of proposals

The impact of these proposals would be significant for consumers and professionals alike.

Buyers could expect transactions to move around four weeks faster, with fall throughs reduced from 1 in 3 transactions to 1 in 7. This reduced failure rate could directly save consumers around £255 million per year, on top of avoiding the stress of failed transactions.

The average time spent on a transaction for sellers is expected to reduce by 2 weeks, providing households with far greater certainty and supporting wider market confidence.  

Consumers would also see clear financial benefits on a per-transaction basis. First-time buyers would be expected to save around £710 per transaction, while home movers could save £400. Final sellers will face some increased upfront costs of £310.

This is due to the inclusion of upfront assessments and surveys, though they will benefit as a result of successful transactions becoming more likely, as the average failed transaction currently costs sellers around £800. 

Professionals across the sector would also benefit from a more efficient and competitive system. Average conveyancing costs, currently around £1,540 for buyers and £930 for sellers, are expected to fall as competition increases, with variable costs reducing by £340 for buyers and £250 for sellers.

At the same time, making surveys a routine part of the process will increase survey spending from £38 to £380 on average, raising fixed costs for sellers to around £710. While this represents a shift in how costs are distributed, the outcome is more transparent, reliable, and efficient system overall.  

It should be recognised that estimating the full impact of change of reforms of this scale is challenging given the complexities of the home buying and selling system.

Changes in one part of the process create ripple effects across the chain, including in the commercial property sector, which to a large extent relies on the same types of data and systems.

Nevertheless, the evidence strongly suggests that the overall benefits in terms of speed, certainty, and consumer confidence, significantly outweigh the costs.

About this consultation

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the Consultation Principles issued by the Cabinet Office.  

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they represent, and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions when they respond. 

Information provided in response to this consultation may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and UK data protection legislation.  In certain circumstances this may therefore include personal data when required by law. 

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, as a public authority, the Department is bound by the information access regimes and may therefore be obliged to disclose all or some of the information you provide. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department. 

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will at all times process your personal data in accordance with UK data protection legislation and in the majority of circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. A full privacy notice is included below. 

Individual responses will not be acknowledged unless specifically requested. 

Your opinions are valuable to us. Thank you for taking the time to read this document and respond. 

Are you satisfied that this consultation has followed the Consultation Principles?  If not or you have any other observations about how we can improve the process please contact us via the complaints procedure.

Personal data

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are  entitled to under UK data protection legislation.

Note that this section only refers to personal data (your name, contact details and any other information that relates to you or another identified or identifiable individual personally) not the content otherwise of your response to the consultation.

1. The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer    

MHCLG is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or by writing to the following address:

Data Protection Officer,
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London
SW1P 4DF

2. Why we are collecting your personal data  

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes. We may also use it to contact you about related matters.

We will collect your IP address if you complete a consultation online. We may use this to ensure that each person only completes a survey once. We will not use this data for any other purpose.

Sensitive types of personal data

Please do not share special category personal data or criminal offence data if we have not asked for this unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of your consultation response. By ‘special category personal data’, we mean information about a living individual’s:

• race
• ethnic origin
• political opinions
• religious or philosophical beliefs
• trade union membership
• genetics
• biometrics 
• health (including disability-related information)
• sex life
• sexual orientation

By ‘criminal offence data’, we mean information relating to a living individual’s criminal convictions or offences or related security measures.

3. Our legal basis for processing your personal data

The collection of your personal data is lawful under article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation as it is necessary for the performance by MHCLG of a task in the public interest/in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.  Section 8(d) of the Data Protection Act 2018 states that this will include processing of personal data that is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department i.e. in this case a consultation.

Where necessary for the purposes of this consultation, our lawful basis for the processing of any special category personal data or ‘criminal offence’ data (terms explained under ‘Sensitive Types of Data’) which you submit in response to this consultation is as follows. The relevant lawful basis for the processing of special category personal data is Article 9(2)(g) UK GDPR (‘substantial public interest’), and Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018 (‘statutory etc and government purposes’). The relevant lawful basis in relation to personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences data is likewise provided by Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Data Protection Act 2018.

4. With whom we will be sharing your personal data

MHCLG may appoint a ‘data processor’, acting on behalf of the Department and under our instruction, to help analyse the responses to this consultation.  Where we do we will ensure that the processing of your personal data remains in strict accordance with the requirements of the data protection legislation.

5. For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

Your personal data will be held for 2 years from the closure of the consultation, unless we identify that its continued retention is unnecessary before that point.

6. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, restriction, objection

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right:

a. to see what data we have about you

b. to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on record

c. to ask to have your data corrected if it is incorrect or incomplete

d. to object to our use of your personal data in certain circumstances

e. to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner (ICO) if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law.  You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/, or telephone 0303 123 1113.

Please contact us at the following address if you wish to exercise the rights listed above, except the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO. Email dataprotection@communities.gov.uk or write to:

Knowledge and Information Access Team,
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,
Fry Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London
SW1P 4DF

7. Your personal data will not be sent overseas

8. Your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making

9. Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system

We use a third-party system, Citizen Space, to collect consultation responses. In the first instance your personal data will be stored on their secure UK-based server. Your personal data will be transferred to our secure government IT system as soon as possible, and it will be stored there for 2 years before it is deleted.

1. HMRC statistics – Property transactions in the UK. ↩

2. 2023, Geospatial Commission, Building Better Decision Making. ↩

3. 2025, Landmark Information Group, Transaction times rise despite slower market - research. ↩

4. Feb 2025 Landmark Information Group, Transaction times rise despite slower market - research. ↩

5. 2023, TPX Impact research for MHCLG, unpublished. ↩

6. Landmark’s Optimus Move project involved the early ordering of searches. Landmark have reported to MHCLG that transactions involved in this project are on average 4 weeks faster than average. ↩

7. 2025, Landmark Information Group, Transaction times rise despite slower market - research. ↩