Agents say slow house buying process is industry’s biggest issue

A survey of 5,000 agents suggests the slow house selling and buying process is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today. 

Respondents were asked to rank the biggest problems they faced in transactions.

Some 74 per cent cited the lack of speed in a transaction, followed by just over 40 per cent saying a lack of control over how the sale was progressing. 

The three next worst elements for the responding agents were a lack of visibility in seeing progress, concern about the poor experience consumers were suffering, and worry about insufficient revenue being earned from the sale.

The findings chime with comments last week by conveyancing industry chief Beth Rudolf who suggested the one change which would most improve the slow house buying process was the provision of upfront information.

Rudolf, director of delivery at the Conveyancing Association, told BBC Radio 4 last week: “If we can get sellers … to collate their information together, they get their searches done themselves, if they’re selling a flat … then they get the leasehold information in, that means when a buyer is found they’ve got everything that the buyer needs, that their valuer needs, that their lender needs to be able to review the information.”

The findings of this latest survey - by portal OneDome - also echo those of recent research commissioned by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. 

In its study of recent homebuyers and sellers, the BEIS found some 59 per cent of purchasers and 57 per cent of vendors found the process longer than expected - one in four said the process was much longer than expected.

When asked what could be improved, speed was the most common response, from 34 per cent of buyers and 31 per cent of sellers.