A widely reported New Year bounce is yet to materialise for conveyancers, according to the latest quarterly confidence tracker from the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC).
There had been hopes of a positive response to the stable but subdued market in the autumn, when activity fell to its lowest level in two years amid uncertainty over the potential introduction of further stamp duty changes in the November budget. But despite predictions that property market demand is set to increase, two thirds of property professionals who responded to the CLC’s survey said the housing market is no busier since the budget.
Official statistics suggest things are on the up: HMRC’s latest figures reveal December transactions were 5% higher than the previous year on a seasonally adjusted basis. Indeed, the tracker itself has seen an uplift in confidence in the stability of the current market – from a low of 42% among those asked in the last survey to 54% this time around. However, it will take time for the reported increase in demand to trickle through to conveyancing.
Likewise, consumers have been buoyed post-budget, according to respondents – 36% said buyers were confident in current market conditions, up from 17% last year. It was a similar picture for sellers, rising from 16% to 24%.
According to Stephen Ward, director of strategy and external relations at the CLC, the survey simply suggests the predicted bounce-back may take a little longer. He said:
“There is a sense that buyers and sellers are feeling more confident, albeit that they may not all be in an immediate rush to move.”
What is unchanged, however, is the attitude toward the speed and efficiency of the conveyancing process: just 18% of respondents to the CLC survey believe things are improving and not getting worse. Transaction times for the large majority still average three to four months, a figure that has not changed since the first tracker survey at the start of last year.
In October 2025 it was announced the CLC was the beneficiary of £742,700 in funding from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund (RPF). The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) programme sponsors regulators and local authority projects that are creating a regulatory environment to foster business innovation and investment. The regulator has partnered with the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) and Raidiam to develop a proof of concept of a framework for digitising property data.
The project will enable the safe, secure sharing of information at the very start of a transaction, with the aim of reducing the one in three sales that fall through.
Ward concluded:
“The current fall-through rate of 30% is unacceptable and must be reduced, and a huge amount of work is being done by the Home Buying and Selling Council and other industry leaders and innovators to make that happen.
“The vision is to deliver a more efficient and reliable system, which will instil confidence in consumers and conveyancers alike and support a healthy housing market for everyone.”
