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

MPs Call for Major Reforms to England and Wales Homebuying Process

MPs are urging sweeping reforms to the homebuying process in England and Wales, highlighting significant transaction failures and delays. The Housing, Communities & Local Government select committee, chaired by Labour MP Florence Eshalomi, is among those calling for change.

The committee points to the current process as “far more difficult, stressful and gruelling than it should be,” with delays and collapsed transactions caused by issues such as gazumping and broken chains. According to data from Landmark, it now takes an average of 120 days to complete a sale after an offer is accepted, a 60% increase since 2007.

Recent research from the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), based on interviews with 5,000 people who have bought or sold a house in the past five years, found that 58% of sales fail, with the annual cost of fall-throughs estimated at £1.97bn. The committee notes that these disruptions not only affect buyers and sellers personally but also contribute to wider market issues, including reduced liquidity and reluctance among homeowners—particularly older ones—to move.

The committee has proposed moving towards the Scottish system, where contracts become legally binding at an earlier stage. In Scotland, only 9% of transactions fail after contracts are binding. However, MPs argue that for such a system to work in England and Wales, buyers would need more upfront information about properties, such as energy performance certificates, council tax bands, local authority searches, title information, leasehold terms, or property condition reports from a chartered surveyor.

A previous attempt to introduce upfront information through Home Information Packs (HIPs) in 2007 was ultimately scrapped in 2012 due to issues with trust and outdated information. The current Labour government’s consultation acknowledges these past problems and proposes using trusted, regularly updated, and real-time data sources.

The government has yet to publish its promised roadmap for transforming the homebuying process. Industry stakeholders, including the OPDA, have highlighted the potential for smart property data and secure, regulated data sharing to improve the process and reduce costs.

These proposed changes are of particular relevance to letting agents and inventory clerks, who may see shifts in transaction timelines, documentation requirements, and the overall flow of property information if reforms are implemented.