- Property professionals can now access new data on highway extent and tree preservation orders in Stockport
- Further digitisation of search data will cut search times from 20 days to one
- Number of residential property transactions in Stockport fell 28% over the last year, down to 2,930 in 2020 from 4,082 in 2019, driven by the closure of the English and Welsh property market in response to the pandemic1
Volume and value of residential and non-residential property transactions in Stockport over the last five years
Christian Woodhouse, Head of Data and Strategic Products at Search Acumen, says:
“Greater digitisation of property data in Stockport represents a further shift in weaning England and Wales’s property market off processes designed to serve a bygone era.
“While the digitisation of different types of property data is an ongoing progress, the most recent updates are a step in the right direction. By increasing the digitisation of available data over time, property professionals undertaking the buying and selling process in Stockport will increasingly benefit from shorter waiting times to access crucial insights. Ultimately this will make the entire transaction experience more efficient for all parties involved. We estimate that in the long term, once all relevant property data has been fully digitised, property search times will be cut to one day from 20 days as a result of this enhanced digitisation.
“Reliance on manual and labour-intensive processes have contributed to severe delays in the transaction process as conveyancers struggle to access the data they need to complete transactions in their assigned timeframe. These outdated modes of working have been bought into sharp relief by the Stamp Duty holiday: property professionals have struggled to shoulder a heavy workload and are expected to achieve the impossible when there are so many barriers to accessing data quickly.
“The good news is property buyers and their legal advisers no longer need to settle for analogue processes in today’s digital world. Increasing the number of local councils that have signed up to the Local Land Charges and that are digitising their property data is crucial to finally bringing the property market into the 21st century.
“Equipping the property profession with accurate information that can be easily accessed will reduce time spent on cumbersome bureaucratic processes. For example, Search Acumen’s ForeSite real estate platform enables property professionals to access 64 data sources2. Having access to this type of information quickly will reduce costs for firms, save time and free up conveyancers to focus on providing their expertise to clients instead of allocating most of their time to administrative tasks.”
Sources
1HMLR: Price Paid Data, March 2021
2Search Acumen: ForeSite platform data includes Enterprise Zones, which are designated areas across England that provide tax breaks and Government support to encourage business growth and information on English local authority’s Green Belt land.
This article was submitted to be published by Search Acumen as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
