A Government-backed coalition has been formed to speed up the digitalisation of the homebuying process, bringing together regulators, industry bodies and technology specialists to tackle the delays, fall-throughs and opaque practices that so often frustrate buyers, sellers and agents.

It is being led by the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) in partnership with the departments responsible for business and housing policy, including DBT, MHCLG, HM Land Registry and the Open Property Data Association.

Open data

Its remit is to explore how a shared national “Open Property” data system could hold all the information required for a sale and make it instantly available to estate agents, conveyancers, lenders and surveyors.

The aim is to tackle issues such as duplication, missing paperwork and slow manual checks, as well as reducing fall-throughs, fraud, gazumping and gazundering.

Leon Ifayemi (main picture), CFIT’s Director of Coalitions and Research, says the current system is failing too many people. “Buying a home in England or Wales can be slow, opaque, costly and aggravating.”

The coalition will act as the central steering group, tasked with pulling together the separate digital projects already underway across Government and industry. It will align data standards, define the datasets needed for a sale and support the development of a national smart-data framework that could eventually underpin a fully digitised home-buying process.

Buying a home can be time-consuming, lengthy and stressful. Using smart data has the potential to make this quicker, more secure and more transparent.”

Digital Economy Minister Liz Lloyd believes better use of data could transform the consumer experience. “Buying a home can be time-consuming, lengthy and stressful. Using smart data has the potential to make this quicker, more secure and more transparent,” she says.

And HM Land Registry says coordination across the sector will be critical, calling the coalition an important step towards a safer, more efficient digital property market. However, so far, there are no details on when its findings will be reported, nor when they might be implemented.