An industry led charter setting out a ‘bold and practical blueprint’ to improve the home buying and selling process has been launched, with the ambition to achieve 28-day ‘sale agreed to exchange’ timescales for property transactions.
Project28 is the work of 23 organisations across the property sector spanning lending, conveyancing and estate agents. Participating organisations include high street lenders HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, estate agents Connells Group and Yopa, legal service providers AConveyancing and Evolve Law, and technology providers TwentyCi, LMS and Landmark Information Group (the full list of participants is included at the end of this article).
Between them, the group are responsible for annual transactions supporting over £600 billion of mortgage assets. Together, they support estate agents in bringing more than half of all listings to market, process in excess of one million search and environmental reports a year, and average three touch points for every property transaction.
According to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, fall throughs cost home movers a total of around £400 million annually, as well a £1 billion in the costs of wasted effort for estate agents and conveyancers. Project28 says it will ‘call time on a fragmented system’, which in 2024 delivered an average time between sale agreed to exchange of 109 days.
The charter, which sets out eight commitments designed to improve efficiency, transparency and trust, will focus on increasing the use of relevant upfront data provision, boosting the adoption of secure interoperable data repositories, and promoting best practice via a recognisable mark.
Central to the group’s ambition is the goal to reduce the time between sale agreed and exchange to 28 days.
Simon Brown, CEO of group member Landmark Information Group, explained:
“Project 28: A Charter for faster, more certain property transactions is a pivotal moment for the property industry – a united response to a system that has, for too long, been too siloed, let down consumers and slowed economic progress. Landmark is proud to drive forward this change, bringing the right people, data and insights together across the entire transaction chain, as part of this industry-led initiative.
“Sitting at the centre of the property ecosystem, Landmark has been uniquely positioned to lead the development of practical, immediate commitments that will improve speed, certainty and trust. This Charter offers a realistic path to meaningful reform. We now urge Government and the wider market to act with us in transforming the experience for home movers across the UK.”
The eight industry commitments of the Project 28 charter are:
- Early instruction of seller-side conveyancer to ensure legal work begins at listing.
- Provision of relevant upfront information and condition reports, reducing delays and surprises.
- Ensuring data collection and availability to support faster and more informed decisions.
- Ensuring trusted data to improve confidence through reliable sources.
- Access to a secure, interoperable data repository giving all parties real-time access to key documents.
- Early commissioning of leasehold packs to avoid late-stage legal delays.
- A recognisable mark to indicate best practice for property professionals and consumers.
- A quality fee for a quality service to help ensure professionals are fairly remunerated.
Commenting on the charter, Movera CEO Nick Hale said it is clear the market needs significant reform and welcomed the industry-wide initiative, which he hopes will help speed up house buying and selling and make the process smoother, more secure and more transparent.
Echoing his comments, Verona Frankish, CEO of Yopa added:
“Buying or selling a home should be exciting, not exhausting. Yet too often, consumers face uncertainty, wasted time, and unnecessary costs because of outdated processes. At Yopa, we believe the industry has a responsibility to work together to change that. This Charter sets a bold, practical path towards achieving a 28-day target from sale agreed to exchange – delivering faster, more certain transactions that benefit everyone: buyers, sellers, and the professionals who support them.
“By embracing digital solutions, improving transparency, and aligning best practice, we can transform the moving experience and restore trust in the process and our industry. Yopa is proud to stand alongside our industry peers in making this ambition a reality – and we’re ready to play our part.”
Justin Parkinson, managing director of Decision First, which operates Lender Exchange, concluded:
“Visibility and transparency are the bookends of the property industry. Without them, expectations are set too high leading to unnecessary disappointment and frustration. With them, all parties involved know where they stand and what to expect. The Project 28 Charter, the commitments set out in it, and the support of the companies signed up to the Charter are the foundations for providing much needed transparency across all aspects of the transaction, from listing, through valuation, mortgage offer, right through to completions and post completion registration, and we’re delighted to lend our support to this charter.”
When asked by Today’s Conveyancer how Project28 fits in with other current initiatives including the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) and the Home Buying and Selling Council, the group responded:
“…this is an industry initiative, created and driven by a cross-section of organisations across the market. We’ve worked with government to ensure it aligns and hope to work closely in the future.”
More information on Project28 and the charter is available here.
Project28 participants are:
AConveyancing | Connells Group | EA Masters | Evolve Law | Holden Smith | HSBC | L&C | Landmark Information Group | Legal & General | Lender Exchange | LLoyds Banking Group | LMS | Mortgage Advice Bureau | Movera | Nationwide | Perry Bishop | Preston Baker | Property Academy | RedBrik | Simplify | Sort Group | TwentyCi | Yopa
16 responses
Project28 Charter business aims represents the very antithesis of the ethos of a property law profession based on integrity.
A relentless commoditisation of homebuying, where teams of ‘conveyancing technicians’ are there to implement business plans tasked with delivering an unthinking ‘dumbed-down’ conveyancing.
The public don’t understand what is happening until they find that their ‘conveyancing factory’ is paralysing a chain of deals, or victims try to sell their properties in the future and they find that their homes are unsaleable because of fundamental legal defects.
Meanwhile those entering the law and working in such factories discover that they have entered a dystopian legal landscape devoted to greed not what is best for the client. The Law Society sits back helpless, and increasingly irrelevant, as an increasingly powerful, greedy but technically ignorant law tech sector marches on.
This will not work unless proper experienced competent conveyancers are consulted and involved which the above does not suggest is the case. Indeed the conveyancers as referred to have never probably managed a 28 day transaction in their history.
Early instruction of seller-side conveyancer – ensuring legal work begins at listing.
Provision of relevant upfront information and condition reports – reducing delays and surprises.
Ensuring data collection and availability – supporting faster, informed decisions.
Ensuring trusted data – improving confidence through reliable sources.
Access to a secure, interoperable data repository – giving all parties real-time access to key documents.
Early commissioning of leasehold packs – avoiding late-stage legal delays.
A recognisable marque to indicate best practice – helping property professionals and consumers identify best practice.
A quality fee for quality service – ensuring professionals are fairly remunerated.
I am looking at some of these points. an someone please explain, in clear defined Englsish, what data is and where it is going to be colllected from and stored and how it is going to improve conveyancing times?
As regards remuneration, it is the factory firms who are involved with this who are again the problem with regard to low fees? This makes no sense.
This project is going to solve nothing as it doesn’t stop referral fees. More significantly I cannot see anywhere a mention of better training for conveyancers which is the most important consideration. Until there is investment for training of the people who actually do the job, which everybody seems to overlook in the race to the bottom of the technology chasm, nothing will improve.
Until proper conveyancers working in the profession are consulted on these projects nothing is going to improve. Technology is NOT the answer.
It’s not really industry-led is it? More like it’s a kick in the nuts from other parties, eg. lenders, estate agents and technology companies who don’t like the current outcomes but who lack the understanding of the processes.
You read so often about ‘proper’ conveyancers being consulted on change in the industry. But the majority of conveyancers who voice their opinions on these articles or Linkedin are always so negative and never offer any practical solutions.
How about some positivity, how about some collaboration to make change happen? There are hundred’s of ‘proper’ conveyancers out there who are forward thinking and quietly getting involved in projects like these and open to change.
It’s a shame organisations like the Property lawyers Alliance are so negative, but it 3-5 years they will disappear as the right law firms and conveyancers embrace technology and the right changes and move the profession and the home buying & selling process forwards.
It’s not negative to recognise that this 28 day exchange won’t work. It takes 2 weeks to do client onboarding so in reality the only way this would work is if upfront information were reintroduced and clients instruct a conveyancer prior to house sale.
That suggests this propolsal is trying to bring in hips/upfront information again. It didn’t work last time, why do you think it’s going to work now? What has changed?
If you’re client onboarding is taking two week , you need to take a look at your processes.
Upfront/material Information hasn’t been withdrawn, just the guidance.
Technology.
Sounds like your firm is still in the dark ages which is why everything takes so long
# Connells # Panorama#. Hips already tried and failed.
How about addressing real issues that cause delay – referral fees, s121 and rent charges, deeds of variation for mortgagee protection etc and why so many brilliant conveyancers are leaving the profession. That will result in real change. Law tech can only play a part once these real issues are tackled.
Shouldn’t that be the responsibility of the Law Society, he SRA or the CLC? Completely agree re law tech, it’s a shame our regulators won’t address any of the real problems you mention.
It’s a nice idea but even the article acknowledges that in order to achieve the required 28 days, plenty of the work has to be done in advance. There’s no mention of the mortgage providers offering any guarantees from their side. Also interesting to note that some of the P28 participants are amongst the worst offenders in not providing adequate documentation at the start of a transaction and not identifying problems that will need resolving from the outset. If all the project achieves is to raise the quality of the Contract packs being provided by every conveyancer then that can only be a good thing.
What is Anon at 13/09 10:16 talking about? PLA is not a firm. Even if Anon’s fan fiction comes true and there is nothing left but factory firms in 3-5 years, there will always be good lawyers to call out ridiculous ideas.
When do they call the PLA a firm?! Says they are an organisation.
It’s implied by “they will disappear as the right law firms and conveyancers embrace technology”
You’re reading it wrong. It implies the PLA will disappear, as all of it’s whingeing members will lose the majority of their transactions by not moving with the times.
What a complete joke. Only way this will happen is through AI and digitalisation. Today solicitors are lazy and don’t want to work to timescales. It’s too mush like being accountable. Fast forward 10 years and cull 90% of the professional and 28 days is a realistic target. A profession that is riddled with wood rot.
‘Sitting at the centre of the property ecosystem….’
Wrong.
It is transfer of risk that lies at heart of the overgrowth of processes .. and who takes responsibility or that to give a guaranteed result. I could give a long list of who it is not.
Good luck getting your mortgage offer from HSBC in 28 days.