A leading conveyancing body has highlighted why the house sales process has been a cause of conflict between agents and solicitors, citing a ‘great conveyancing crunch’ that predated Covid.

Search Acumen says that while the volume of house sales has nearly doubled over the past decade to 1.3 million last year, the number of active conveyancing firms has shrunk by 10%.

This has led to case loads for those who remain increasing by 79% as many smaller conveyancers have been squeezed out of the market and larger corporates become more dominant.

Looking at active firm numbers in Q4 2022, although levels have stabilised to around pre-pandemic levels, they remain significantly down on 2012, from 17,855 to just 16,138 now.

“It’s been an unprecedented decade of pressure on the conveyancing sector, which culminated in the extreme levels of market activity during the pandemic and post pandemic period,” says Andy Sommerville (pictured), Director of Search Acumen.

“With transaction volumes rising while firm numbers have consistently fallen, this has obviously created new commercial opportunities, but equally put huge strain on lawyers to meet the needs of the market through some of the most challenging years we’ve ever seen.

“We cannot underestimate how critical the UK conveyancing sector has been in keeping the property sector going, with lawyers going above and beyond, putting themselves at risk of burnout to meet the needs of their clients.

“Looking back on the last ten years, we have to recognise the incredible contribution of conveyancers first and foremost.”