The government has announced new proposals to speed up the process of buying a home by four weeks, alongside wider reforms to "rewire a chaotic system which has become a barrier to homeownership".
Hundreds of thousands of first-time buyers set to save £710 on average when buying a home, due to what the government is calling "the biggest shakeup to the homebuying system in this country’s history".
Under the plans, sellers and estate agents will be required to publish information from searches and surveys before a property listing is published. This will enable buyers to see the physical condition, characteristics, and flood risk of the property online. It will enable buyers to make informed decisions sooner and sellers will benefit from faster transactions, resulting in fewer costly fall-throughs.
The full list of proposed mandatory upfront information includes: tenure, council tax band, EPC rating, property type, legal and transactional information such as title information and seller ID verification, leasehold terms, building safety data, standard searches, property condition assessments tailored to property age and type, service charges, planning consents, flood risk data, chain status, and clear floor plans.
Binding contracts could also be introduced to end the practice of parties pulling out of agreements months into the process, costing families heartbreak and hundreds of pounds.
The changes will be supported by deploying the use of digital tools – including digital property logbooks, digital ID verification, and standardised data sharing – enhancing transparency and security for buyers and sellers.
In addition, buyers will be able to see clear, side-by-side information on estate agents and conveyancers, including their track record and expertise, alongside new mandatory qualifications and Code of Practice for estate, letting and managing agents.
These proposals aim to speed up the housing market by halving the number of failed sales, costing the economy £1.5 billion a year, and the government estimates reforms could accelerate transactions by around four weeks. A full roadmap to fix the broken system will be set out in the new year.
Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at The Conveyancing Association, said: "The Conveyancing Association welcomes these reforms, which we and other industry stakeholders have long campaigned for, in order to deliver a better home selling and purchase experience for all. By ensuring vital information is provided upfront, consumers and industry alike will benefit from greater certainty, reduced risk of fall-throughs and a faster, less stressful process. This is an important step towards the modern, transparent and efficient homebuying system that families and professionals have been calling for. These reforms have both the ability to enable conveyancing lawyers to be proactive, and to support estate agents to comply with the law. We would urge a further step to now be made via the regulation of property agents, so they know what, and how, to deliver in this area.”
Babek Ismayil, CEO of homebuying platform OneDome, commented: "These proposals are a welcome step towards bringing much-needed transparency and structure to a fragmented homebuying system. Giving buyers key information upfront and exploring legally binding contracts could help reduce some of the uncertainty and wasted time that have become synonymous with moving home in the UK.
“However, this isn’t the first time we’ve been here. Home Information Packs (HIPs) were introduced with similar ambitions back in 2007, but ultimately failed because the wider process wasn’t reformed alongside them.
"If we want these new measures to succeed where HIPs didn’t, they must focus on genuine integration across all parties in a transaction - not just more paperwork at the start. There’s also a risk of unintended consequences: requiring sellers and agents to gather more upfront information could delay properties coming onto the market. In a market where boosting supply is critical, any added friction must be carefully managed to avoid slowing things down.
“While these measures sound promising on paper, they don’t address the fundamental issue: the process itself is disjointed. Multiple parties - agents, conveyancers, lenders and surveyors – are still working in silos, often relying on outdated, manual processes. Without proper digital integration between these stakeholders, the predicted four-week saving risks being more of an aspiration than a guarantee.
“True reform will come from connecting the dots end-to-end, not just adding new layers of information at the start. Technology already exists to create a seamless, joined-up experience for buyers and sellers, cutting delays and reducing the risk of fall-throughs. This is a promising start, but the real challenge lies in execution — tackling the structural inefficiencies that have held the market back for decades.”
Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and former RICS residential chairman, said: “More efficiency and less waste in home moving must be welcome but not so easy to achieve in practice as these proposals are not new.
“What we don’t want to see above all is a drop or delay in transactions which would be more costly not just for buyers and sellers but for job and social ability which is so fundamental to economic growth.
“On the ground, as long-standing chartered surveyors and estate agents, we have found many sellers do not necessarily want to reveal 'warts and all' about their properties whereas for others speed is not paramount so will need time to adjust.
“Sufficient capacity will be essential too in terms of numbers of suitably qualified and experienced surveyors to take on the additional workload as a significant number of additional detailed inspections will be required than at present.
“The legal profession will also need to become conversant with the new arrangements asap, for instance to determine what are 'reasonable' grounds for withdrawal, to avoid gazumping and gazundering to ensure the smoothest possible delivery after consultation.”
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, added: “While we fully support measures to speed up the process of buying a home, these suggestions are largely underwhelming, as they don’t address the main issues.
“Lenders can produce mortgage offers within very short timeframes but it’s the conveyancing which can really slow down the home buying and selling process, with local searches in some areas experiencing severe delays, for example.
"Building the 1.5 million new homes we need, speeding up the planning process, incentivising buyers and reforming stamp duty are the key measures the government needs to focus on to really make a difference."
