Property Natter - Why are we waiting? Delays are suffocating…

It’s so good to see housing at the top of the government’s agenda for change.

Finally! The housing crisis has been met with a political response and, it seems, a determination to get things moving.

It’s good to see an ambition to build 1.5million new homes in five years. It’s refreshing to see proposals to shake-up and modernise our antiquated planning system.

The determination to complete leasehold reform and rental reform – left hanging by the previous government – is worthy of praise.

But perhaps the most important measure included in the King’s Speech (as far as property professionals are concerned) was something that could have easily passed you by.

The Digital Information and Smart Data Bill will be overseen by the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and will ‘enable new innovative uses of data to be safely developed and deployed and will improve people’s lives by making public services work better by reforming data sharing and standards; help scientists make more life enhancing discoveries by improving data laws; and ensure data is well protected by giving the regulator new, stronger powers and a more modern structure.’

Numbers game

So what? I hear you ask.

Well, according to Maria Harris, chair of the Open Property Data Association, this is fantastic news.

This is what she said in response to the announcement:

“Solving the housing crisis is not just a numbers game. 

“Our chronically poor and sclerotic homebuying process contributes significantly to the crisis by blocking home moves and engendering low consumer confidence.

“We look forward to seeing the Government’s plans to take ownership of an urgent overhaul of the process, ensuring property data is digitized at source and that transactions are underpinned by a digital ecosystem.

“Shareable digital data, true interoperability and strong cyber standards will hugely improve the productivity and efficiency of the homebuying market for everyone.”

If what Maria says is true, this is indeed marvellous news.

Only this week, Propertymark published a report in its Research Spotlight Series which referred to the housebuying process as ‘Dickensian’.

Complexity of titles

And, despite the increasing use of PropTech solutions to speed up the process, researchers found that it is actually taking longer for a transaction to progress.

The report says that in March 2016, 78% of transactions progressed from offer to exchange within 12 weeks. In March this year, that figure had fallen to 29%.

The report says Propertymark members identified a number of possible causes:

•  The process is too administratively intensive;
•  Delays in receiving information (local authority searches)
•  Solicitors don’t have sufficient resources

The Conveyancers Association added a few more reasons for the hold-ups, including: dematerialisation of deeds, increasing complexity of titles, inability of conveyancers to ‘take a view’ and a mismatch between conveyancers fees and increasing workload levels.

Of course, it doesn’t help when some parts of the sector have embraced tech solutions while others have preferred to rely on the traditional ways of doing things – everyone knows that a chain moves as quickly as its slowest link.

But delays in reaching the point of exchange increase the stress for buyers and sellers, slow the entire housing market and increase the number of fall-throughs.

Interestingly, a separate piece of research reached the newsdesk this week showing that the average cost of conveyancing has risen 4.5% in the first half of 2024. According to Compare My Move, the average conveyancing cost has now risen to £1,383.66. This means that people both buying and selling are paying £21.50 more for their transaction than they would have done at the start of the year.

Who knows? Perhaps the Digitalisation and Smart Data Bill will clear the way to a brighter, quicker, more efficient homebuying process for all of us.

In the meantime, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Valerie’s ruby celebration

And finally, Property Natter sends warmest congratulations to lettings sector doyenne, Valerie Bannister.

Her employers, Your Move, rightly threw her a 40th anniversary party so colleagues could raise a glass to toast her four decades in the rental business.

Valerie’s long and impressive career started at the Fareham branch of Maurice Beale and Partners in July 1984. Since then, she has picked up a Sunday Times award for industry contribution, a Women in Industry Award for being president elect in 2013 and then president of ARLA in 2014. She has also served two terms on the Propertymark board.

Valerie, we salute you.

Until next time
N

If you’ve got a story you’d like me to Natter about, drop me a line at press@estateagenttoday.co.uk