When the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) started its journey to digitise the housing market two years ago, I couldn’t have expected the fantastic progress it’s made so far. This year has delivered everything we’ve asked for and so much more for home buying.

Our mission at the OPDA is simple – to speed up and streamline the home moving process for consumers and professionals through digital adoption and sharing of open data.

We want every company, in every part of the mortgage and property transaction, to access and share open data in a digital, standardised, and trusted format.

It will transform the way we buy and sell houses, in the same way Open Banking has transformed the way we manage our finances.

Our role in this transformation is to drive forward the change, and ensure the industry is collaborating effectively and working towards a common set of data and governance principles.

There are so many highlights from this year but most importantly we’ve made the case for digitising the homebuying process and secured Government support and funding to make it happen.

Largest ever

When we launched The Future of Homebuying report in January, it was one of the largest research projects ever undertaken into the homebuying process, asking more than 5,000 people about their experiences.

What we found confirmed what many of us have long suspected – the UK homebuying process is incredibly slow and frustrating – and provided a compelling case for urgently transforming the property market.

The research found nearly half of consumers experienced a three to six-month delay between having their offer accepted and exchanging contracts, with communication breakdowns and repeated document requests among the most common frustrations. In the report we called on the Government to mandate digital standards and develop a trust framework and accreditation process endorsed by regulatory bodies.

Government commitment

And they listened. In February we secured commitment and budget from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) to digitise the homebuying process and to drive adoption of data standards across Government and industry – a huge milestone.

In June, we celebrated our second birthday, and a further two wins. The Government published its Industrial Strategy, which included the reforms called for in our report – a smart data scheme for property, digital innovation for proptech and lawtech, and a collaborative approach to interoperability.

The Data Use & Access Bill was also passed into legislation underpinning the changes needed to enable digital homebuying. It has important implications for the property sector – supporting greater interoperability between datasets such as land ownership, planning, valuation, energy performance, and conveyancing information, and encourages public bodies to make high-value datasets more accessible and reusable.

Transformation

The summer just kept giving when in July a report commissioned by the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) highlighted the critical role of open data standards in transforming the UK property market. Crucially, it recommended that government, industry and DPMSG work with the OPDA to co-create the trust framework that will underpin the future of smart property data and homebuying.

Then in November the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) launched its latest coalition group, focused on accelerating cross-sector collaboration on homebuying, underpinned by OPDA’s data standards and trust framework sandbox. CFIT’s mission is to accelerate UK fintech and financial innovation and to unlock barriers to growth for consumers and businesses. Previous coalitions have focused on Open Finance and digital verification and delivered game-changing solutions.

Christmas wish-list

It’s been an incredible year and I’d like to thank everyone involved with the OPDA for their hard work and support. I’m now looking forward to taking a well-earned break at home with family over Christmas. If there’s one thing I could ask Santa for is for everyone in the industry to respond to the MHCLG’s homebuying consultation so we can deliver the improvements we need for us and our customers. It’s open until 29 December so make sure you have your say on the future of our industry.

Maria Harris is Chair of the Open Property Data Association (OPDA)