Conveyancers and professionals across the property ecosystem have shared their reactions to the government’s roadmap for home buying and selling reform.
Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association, presented a balanced view. “Home buying and selling reform is about removing the current delay and uncertainty and reducing risk. It is about giving conveyancers the information they need to manage risk better. Liability remains where it has always been; what changes is the quality and timing of the information available.
“Conveyancers remain responsible for the advice they provide, just as they are today. The difference is they will increasingly have access to better information, earlier in the transaction, enabling risks to be identified, understood and managed before they become problems. For too long, our profession has been expected to navigate transactions with incomplete information, leading to avoidable delays, frustration and fall-throughs.
“This reform gives us the opportunity to move from a reactive process to a proactive one. This is not a leap into the unknown. It is a practical evolution that supports consumers, reduces wasted effort and helps professionals deliver better outcomes with greater confidence. When information is available earlier and shared more effectively, risk does not increase, it decreases. The result is a home moving process that is faster, more transparent and more trusted by everyone involved.”
Sheila Kumar, chief executive of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, called for unity in the sector, particularly in the approach to digitalisation. She said: “It is now vital that all parts of the home buying and selling market – from estate agents and lenders to conveyancers, surveyors, managing agents and removal companies – work together to implement these reforms swiftly and effectively in the public interest.
“Most importantly, digitalised upfront information that can be shared with trust – especially when combined with reservation agreements – will greatly improve confidence in transactions and allow buyer and seller to agree a date for completion much earlier in the process than at present… Digitalisation will also transform very positively the work of conveyancers, who will be able to devote more time to advising their clients and less to the task of gathering information.”
Maria Harris, chair of the Open Property Data Association, agrees. She said: “International examples have already shown what can be achieved through digitalisation and data sharing. By working collaboratively across the industry, we have an opportunity to build a modern, fit-for-purpose property system that works better for everyone, improves the emotional and financial wellbeing of consumers and supports a more sustainable and efficient housing market.”
In the proptech sector, LMS commercial director Travis Scholes said the benefits of standardised data are already clear. “Through initiatives such as National Property Transaction Network (NPTN) by LMS, we are already demonstrating how secure data sharing can enable earlier collaboration, reduce duplication and improve transparency – creating stronger foundations for transactions from the outset and tackling long‑standing friction in the process.
“Crucially, these reforms build a strong narrative around how this contributes to improving the overall home-buying journey and delivers benefits across the end-to-end process. Open, collaborative solutions like NPTN will be key to delivering shorter transaction times and better experiences forestate agents, law firms, lenders buyers and sellers alike, ensuring the full value of a modernised property market is realised.”
Movera’s Nick Hale agrees. He said: “We’re pleased to see that these steps complement the work we have been doing within Movera and its brands to implement digital tools from the outset and improve transaction outcomes. We have invested in NPTN, working alongside partners such as Connells Group, because we believe a connected, end-to-end digital process can help deliver these benefits at scale.”
But for Stephen Larcombe, spokesperson for the Conveyancing Task Force, digitalisation will not reduce the regulatory burden on conveyancers. “Solicitors and other property lawyers are among the most regulated legal professionals in the world. Delays in transactions arise not from a lack of effort or competence, but from legislative complexity, public-sector backlogs, oppressive and poorly implemented regulation, and poor practices by developers. Digitalisation must be introduced only cautiously, with statutory liability for data platforms, cyber-resilience, and public-sector infrastructure in place.
“The entire consultation process now looks uncomfortably like a charade. The Gunning Principles appear to have been ignored. Many in the legal profession will feel that the decisions were made long before the evidence was gathered. And yet, every actor in this system, save one, should be very careful what they wish for.”
He added: “So, who wins from this mess? Just one group, a powerful and self‑interested law tech sector, that has spent years pulling the digital wool over the eyes of a government desperate for quick wins. These companies have mastered the art of promising digital transformation while disclaiming responsibility for the legal risks they create. They are the only actors in this drama who emerge with even more power and more commercial opportunity.”
Katrina Lamont, head of legal practice at Eden Conveyancing, takes an opposing view. She said: “As a digital-first conveyancing firm, we welcome the government’s roadmap. It identifies the biggest cause of delay and frustration in home moving: information arriving too late and through multiple disconnected channels. Getting trusted, standardised data into the process early speeds transactions up and reduces fall-throughs. For too long, problems have surfaced only after an offer is accepted, once buyers and sellers have already spent time, money, and emotional energy.
“The prize now is delivery. Common data standards, secure information sharing and sensibly paced reform will turn this ambition into shorter, more certain transactions.”
Nick Statman, CEO of Bettermove, agrees. “Of all the proposals announced, greater digitalisation could have the biggest impact. It’s remarkable that such a significant proportion of the home-buying process still relies on outdated systems and manual processes when secure digital alternatives already exist. Wider adoption of e-signatures, digital identity verification and integrated systems has the potential to remove unnecessary friction, improve transparency and help transactions progress more smoothly.”
On binding agreements, Lorna du Sautoy, private property partner in the private wealth team at Michelmores, said: “Any reform aimed at earlier commitment would need to navigate the practical realities of chains and financing. Sellers will rarely consider a transaction secure until exchange, particularly where demand is competitive. That places a premium on speed and certainty of execution for buyers. Reform may help but for now the best protection is still careful management of the process and moving to exchange as efficiently as possible.”
Bishop & Sewell partner David Smith thinks the use of binding agreements is “the more useful change” in the plans. He explained: “Some estate agents use these already (I have drafted some of them) and they substantially reduce the risk of prospective buyers being overly optimistic about their borrowing power and making offers they cannot ever actually afford, with either the intention of a last minute cut in their offer when it is too late for everyone to walk away or due to ignorance of their real financial position.”
Smith and others also drew attention to the similarities between the new sales packs and the failed home information packs (HIPs). Smith said: “The government plans to make ‘sales packs’ compulsory. They do not say what will be in these and the consultation admitted that they were dangerously similar to the failed policy of Home Information Packs which was introduced by the Housing Act 2004 before promptly being scrapped.
“Unless these packs are structured in such a way that they can actually be relied on (which was a major failing with HiPs) they will be of no significant effect at all. Most buyers simply do not look at the detail of a property they like and leave it to their conveyancer. It will take a major change in behaviour for sales packs to make much difference or a change in the law. This will also massively up estate agent costs (and fees) so if it is not of any use that would be a bit of a pointless exercise.”
Amanda Angel, partner and head of residential real estate at Birketts LLP, said the new system would be an improvement. She explained: “The key distinction is that, unlike HIPs, the new model is underpinned by digital property packs, improved data sharing and a more integrated ecosystem across agents, conveyancers, lenders and HM Land Registry.
“This creates the potential for information to be more accurate, accessible and reusable, addressing many of the shortcomings that led to the demise of HIPs. In that sense, the reforms can be seen as ‘HIPs reimagined’ – retaining the core principle of upfront disclosure but supported by smarter data infrastructure and clearer industry standards.”
On upfront information, CEO of reallymoving Rob Houghton called for careful consideration. “There’s a real danger that these changes could hand too much power to estate agents, allowing them to dominate distribution of upfront services such as conveyancing and surveys. Without safeguards, this will lead to inflated prices, preferred provider arrangements and opaque referral fees or kickbacks.
“The proposed Code of Practice for estate agents needs to address this explicitly and ensure there is complete upfront transparency, with homebuyers given information on all the options available to them when it comes to finding and appointing a surveyor or conveyancer.”
However, Jason Tebb, president of the OnTheMarket thinks upfront information will “tackle many of the root causes of delays and fall-throughs.”
For PEXA’s head of government and public affairs Angela Hesketh, the plans don’t go far enough. She said: “At present, a critical gap remains: the point of completion.
“The final stages of a transaction – coordinating completion and transfer of title – remain complex, fragmented, prone to delay and increasingly sophisticated fraud. This exposes every stakeholder in the chain. Buyers are vulnerable because they don’t legally own their property until the title is registered, conveyancers are left to handle requisitions and post completion queries with already limited capacity, and lenders are left without secured collateral.
“If we are serious about delivering a truly end-to-end digital property market, fixing this ‘last mile’ must be the next priority.”
The newly formed Conveyancing Improvement Collective supports changes that improve the home buying journey, but said conveyancers should be at the heart of the process.
Founder Rob Hailstone said: “The CIC will study the roadmap carefully and will feedback with honest but constructive suggestions. The government, however, must not forget that conveyancers are the drivers of this process, and in order for it to be a smoother drive they need to ensure that the vehicle they are in control of, is fit for purpose.”
