One of the senior government officials looking after it’s ongoing home buying and selling reforms has said she expects the key initial building blocks for the initiative to be in place in 12 months’ time.

The two consultations on the reforms are due to end on 29th December this year.

Victoria Latham (main image, right) the Deputy Director for Housing at MHCLG and chair of the Digital Property Market Steering Group, made the comments during a lively debate in central London yesterday.

She was on the stage at an event hosted by lender Santander to highlight its report into fixing Britain’s ‘broken home buying chain’.

It found that a quarter of UK adults who have attempted to buy a property have experienced a fall-through, and that these failed transactions cost the UK economy some £1.5 billion a year.

The pain of moving also means that nearly a third of those who have moved home previously are put off trying it again, particularly as each failed attempt costs movers £1,240 on average.

Others speaking on the panel included David Morris, Head of Homes at Santander (main image, left) plus Angela Hesketh from the Open Data Property Association and PEXA (middle).

Latham, when asked what she progress she would like to see achieve in 12 months’ time, said: “I would like to see clear guidance published on upfront information and that people are using plus a clear understood published roadmap of where we are going with the myriad different parties on that map,” she said.

Angela Hesketh agreed, adding that the property industry needs a ‘clear trust framework’ for all players to use and ‘tangible outputs’ from the two MHCLG consultations under way.

Upfront information

The contentious issue of upfront information was never far away during the hour-long debate, particularly given how Labour’s last reform efforts during 2007-2010 via its Home Information Pack initiative floundered because neither agents nor vendors were keen on the extra cost and effort prior to putting a home on the market.

When asked about this by The Neg, Latham said: “I don’t think we need to try and fix everything at once; it’s key that we have clarity of direction instead including a roadmap, setting out the stages and giving people time to get there – if you try and do everything at once it feels too like a knee-jerk ‘shock’… and we need to take people on a journey of transparency and education.

“We need to be clear about the implications too – so making changes is going to incur some costs for some people at some stages but just all on the buyer, seller, lender or the Government – to change something as fundamental and complex as home buying and selling everyone is going to have to move a bit.”

The homebuying process in the UK has long been in need of fundamental reform,

David Morris says: “The homebuying process in the UK has long been in need of fundamental reform, and it’s a source of stress and wasted expense for millions of people.

Our recent report, Fixing the Broken Chain highlights just how outdated the homebuying process has become, with over half a million failed transactions each year, causing a £1.5 billion hit to the economy annually.

“The Government has an important role to play in overhauling the system with full industry cooperation and support, and we welcome the launch of the Open Property Coalition and its focus on using smart data and technology to streamline transactions.

“The launch is an important step in the right direction. By bringing together government, industry and technology partners, there is a real opportunity to modernise the system, increase transparency and give buyers and sellers the information they need upfront.

“These reforms could finally start to help the market work more efficiently, reduce failed transactions and make homeownership a more positive experience – a change all those in the sector want to usher in.”