The government is proposing revolutionary changes to the house buying system which it claims will shave four weeks off the usual transaction time, reduce fall-throughs and save buyers hundreds of pounds.
The proposals are out to formal consultation from this morning until the end of December 29. The proposals as they are currently worded refer almost exclusive to selling and buying but have clear repercussions for the lettings sector – especially the extension of the Material Information requirements and the introduction of mandatory mandatory qualifications and a Code of Practice for estate, letting and managing agents, (please see separate stories).
In detail the government is proposing these change to transacting properties:
Requiring upfront information packs:
The government says: We are interested in introducing a mandatory requirement for sellers to work with conveyancers and surveyors to carry out searches and a property condition assessment prior to listing. We recognise this would represent a significant change, so it would not happen immediately. We would work with industry to understand how and when this should be introduced.
Upfront information could go beyond what the law currently requires in terms of ‘material information’ in property listings. We propose requiring a standardised, easy-to-digest set of data at the point of listing.
This could include key facts such as:
tenure
council tax band
EPC rating
property type
It could also include legal and transactional information like:
title information
seller ID verification
leasehold terms
building safety data
It could also cover:
standard searches (local authority, drainage and water, environmental, and locality-specific risks such as mining or chalk)
property information (such as that captured in the TA6 form)
a property condition assessment tailored to the property age and type
Additional details such as service charges, planning consents, flood risk, chain status, and a clear floor plan could also be made available.
Subject to the outcome of this consultation, we will explore legislative options for requiring sellers to gather and provide this comprehensive property information, and for estate agents to include it in listings. This would ensure compliance and give buyers access to information that could impact their decision. Consultations would be held prior to legislation to ensure the benefits of this change, specifically improved efficiency and reduced falls throughs, are felt by all parties involved in the process.
We recognise that previous initiatives, such as Home Information Packs, faced challenges around trust, reliance, and outdated information. Our approach would address these issues by drawing data from trusted sources, underpinned by clear standards, and updated as needed.
The mechanisms for doing this could include:
leveraging real-time sources, for example from HM Land Registry
free refreshes from search providers
setting standard validity periods, for example 6 months for searches.
A minimum standard for data provenance would ensure reliability and consistency. Information would be presented in a standardised, easy-to-digest format, with guidance on liability and verification to ensure critical data is professionally validated, not solely reliant on seller declarations.
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Digital Logbooks
The government says: Digital property packs store current and historic information on a property, giving homeowners control of their data and reducing transaction risk by verifying its provenance. This allows property professionals to progress transactions faster and with greater confidence in the information provided. Packs also reduce the need for home owners to hold on to reams of paper documents.
Widespread use of these tools would standardise upfront property information, reducing the need for conveyancers to assemble this information from scratch each time a property is marketed. In some countries, digital packs or logbooks are mandatory, for example, in France, they are required for all new build properties.
New build homes offer a clear opportunity to lead adoption of digital property logbooks and upfront information. Developers already hold comprehensive property data, making it straightforward to provide verified, standardised information from the outset. This is one of the reasons it can be faster to purchase a new build property. Embedding digital property packs in new build transactions would deliver faster, more certain sales, set a benchmark for the wider market, and support the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next parliament.
We propose that digital property packs should become a standard feature of property transactions in the UK. To achieve this, we are seeking views on whether government should consider legislating to require their use. Ahead of that, we would work with the sector to encourage adoption, build on the self-regulatory approach established by the Residential Log Book Association, and remove policy barriers to wider use.
To support consistency and consumer confidence, we would explore mandating a standardised core data set for all digital packs, linked to the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Land Registry records. Packs must also be interoperable, integrating via APIs with conveyancing platforms, local authority systems, retrofit tools, and planning applications to enable live data and seamless transactions.
Given the sensitive nature of the data held by these packs, robust security and data privacy standards will be essential. We would work with industry to establish and evolve security protocols and approval criteria for providers.
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Binding conditional contracts
The government says: It will see sellers and estate agents required under the plans to provide buyers with vital information about a property upfront, including the condition of the home, leasehold costs, and chains of people waiting to move. This will help end nasty surprises which result in last-minute collapses and give greater confidence to first-time buyers making one of life’s most important decisions.
Binding contracts could also be introduced to stop people walking away from agreements after buyers painstakingly spend months in negotiations. This will help halve the number of failed transactions, so precious time and money don’t go to waste, as well as avoid heartbreak and stress for hard-working people looking for the perfect home.
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Increasing Transparency:
The government says:Currently, buyers or sellers can withdraw from a transaction any time between offer acceptance and the exchange of contracts, often at significant cost to the opposite party.
Conditional contracts can be used to make transactions binding at an early stage. Withdrawing after a binding agreement has been signed typically incurs a financial penalty, for example the loss of the buyer’s deposit.
In the long-term, we could explore whether greater use of binding agreements could deliver benefits for consumers. This would bring our system more in line with jurisdictions like Scotland and the United States, and significantly reduce the likelihood of transactions failing before completion. More binding transactions in Scotland are part of the reason that only 9% of their transactions fall through.
Any future consideration of wider use would need to follow the introduction of comprehensive upfront information, as it would not be reasonable to require buyers to commit to a binding property transaction under a system where they do not have access to detailed property information.
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Streamlining transactions
The government says: The role of conveyancers has expanded significantly in recent years and as a result, this part of the home moving process is taking far longer than it once did, taking an average of 60% longer in 2025 than it did in 2007.
This is partly a result of newer regulations such as those that set the legal framework for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) which means consumers face duplicative checks from conveyancers, lenders, estate agents and other property professionals during a single transaction.
Property titles have also become increasingly complex, with issues such as managed freehold properties and estate rent charges becoming more common.
This directly adds to the workload of conveyancers but also means lenders have additional requirements for conveyancers to manage their risk in lending against properties with these terms.
We propose streamlining and simplifying conveyancing to ensure that consumers and professionals do not face unnecessary delays and duplication.
We suggest beginning this process by streamlining AML checks so that consumers do not face repeated checks during a single transaction. We could also explore opportunities to support AI conveyancing technology to save conveyancers time.
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Introducing all these far-reaching proposals, the new Housing Secretary Steve Reed says: “Buying a home should be a dream, not a nightmare. Our reforms will fix the broken system so hardworking people can focus on the next chapter of their lives. Through our Plan for Change we are putting more money back into working people’s pockets and making a simple dream a simple reality.”
Source: Estate Agent Today
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