Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Property Industry Eye. Read the original article for full details.

Industry Leaders Join BestAgent Board to Address Transaction Delays

Senior figures from across the UK property sector have joined an advisory board set up by BestAgent founder Charlie Lamdin, as the company aims to shorten transaction times and reduce the number of fall-throughs in residential property sales.

The new board includes Verona Frankish, chief executive of Yopa; Simon David, group CEO of Thomas Legal and Equilaw; and Daniel Daggers, founder of DDRE Global. Their backgrounds span estate agency, conveyancing, and property technology. Rory Sutherland, president emeritus of Ogilvy Consulting, is also on the board as both adviser and investor in BestAgent. Other members are Alex Groundwater, Jo Henry, Andrew Tillard, and Nick Armstrong, who bring experience from sectors including programme management, property acquisition, and legal services.

BestAgent has set a target of halving transaction times and reducing fall-through rates. The company’s focus comes amid ongoing concerns about the length and certainty of residential property transactions. According to the government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, published in June, the average transaction currently takes around 120 days from offer acceptance to completion, which is approximately 60% longer than in 2007. Around one in three transactions also falls through.

BestAgent attributes some of these delays to the incentives present in the housing market, where estate agents compete for instructions, portals focus on advertising and lead generation, and various professionals handle separate parts of the process. The company says it wants to place greater emphasis on completed transactions and transparency throughout the process.

An initial part of BestAgent’s strategy is its Find Your Agent service. This platform allows prospective sellers to invite local estate agents to pitch for their instruction by watching short videos from participating agents before deciding whom to invite for a valuation and further discussion. Agents cannot pay for preferential positioning, and only the agent selected by the seller is charged. BestAgent says this system could give independent agencies a greater opportunity to compete with larger corporate businesses.

This development is relevant to letting agents and inventory clerks as it highlights ongoing efforts to streamline the home-moving process and improve transaction certainty, which could impact the wider property sector.