Forty days. That is how long Rightmove chief executive Johan Svanstrom believes it should take to get from finding a buyer to completing a home sale in the UK, compared with the 150-day average he cited in a recent interview with The Times.
We’ve heard various targets in recent times, some more ambitious than others and they certainly work to generate a punchy headlines. But perhaps the more interesting part of his argument in the interview was how we might get there. He suggested that buyers and renters should have access to far more information about a property at an earlier stage, including planning history, energy performance certificates and title deeds.
There is already considerable work taking place across the property industry to bring information forward in the homebuying process, and the logic is clear. If something about a property is likely to require further investigation, knowing about it sooner gives everyone involved more time to understand its significance and decide what needs to happen next.
However, it also raises a bigger question - If the industry succeeds in making much more property information available at the beginning of a transaction, are the processes that follow equipped to make full use of it?
That is particularly relevant for lenders and intermediaries because the property is the asset supporting the mortgage. Information that emerges during the legal process can have implications for the lending decision, so bringing some of that information forward could allow relevant questions to be raised before a case has progressed as far as it might today.
From having the data to making it useful
Giving buyers access to more information upfront should help them make a more informed decision about the property they are considering, yet its value does not end once that decision has been made. The same information could also prove useful as the mortgage and legal work progresses.
The real test is whether relevant data can continue to be used as the transaction progresses. Making information available earlier achieves less if it then sits separately from the mortgage and conveyancing processes, has to be requested again or cannot easily be accessed by those who need it.
This is where the discussion about upfront information becomes part of a broader question about how the different stages of a property transaction connect. Digital identity, structured property data and improved ways of exchanging information all have a role to play, but their value is greater when information can move between the relevant parties without creating additional work or another source that needs to be checked.
This could support a clearer view of property matters for lenders that may affect a case as it progresses, while intermediaries could benefit from greater certainty about what is happening beyond mortgage offer. Conveyancers, meanwhile, need information in a form that allows them to assess and act on it, rather than simply being given access to greater volumes of data.
The aim should not be to replace the judgement of any of those parties, quite the opposite. Better information should allow that expertise to be applied at the right point in the transaction.
Looking beyond headline completion times
This also matters when considering ambitions to make homebuying significantly faster. There will always be transactions that require additional time because there is a genuine issue to investigate, whether that involves title, the property itself or a legal question that needs to be resolved before a lender can proceed.
Rather than expecting technology to remove that complexity, a more useful measure of progress may be how quickly relevant issues become known and how effectively they can then be dealt with.
That requires visibility to mean more than knowing that a transaction has reached a particular stage. Lenders and other parties need a clear view of what information has been provided, whether anything remains outstanding and where further action is required. Over time, better data on those interactions can also provide a clearer understanding of where transactions are spending their time and where processes could be improved.
This is why the debate around upfront property information feels particularly important. As more data becomes available earlier, the challenge increasingly becomes how effectively the industry can use it throughout the life of the transaction.
Reducing average completion times from 150 days to 40 is undoubtedly an ambitious target and no single technology, process change or source of property data that achieves it. However, if the industry can combine better information at the outset with the ability to view, use and share it as a transaction progresses, we can move closer to a process where the right people are better connected, issues are identified sooner and fewer days are lost along the way.
