For decades, those of us working across the property sector have been describing the same problem. Buying and selling a home in England and Wales remains too slow, too fragmented, too uncertain and has too many unexpected costs.
Consumers are asked repeatedly asked to provide the same information and the same documents in inconvenient ways. Property data sits in disconnected systems. Identity checks are duplicated. Critical information arrives too late in the process. The result is a transaction journey that creates stress and delay for everyone involved.
What has been encouraging over the last year is that the conversation has evolved significantly. We are no longer debating whether property transactions need to be modernised. We are increasingly focused on how we deliver that transformation and who is responsible for turning policy ambition into practical outcomes.
A recent series of important developments have created real momentum.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has announced a programme of work to modernise the homebuying process, including opening up access to property information, improving data sharing and advancing digital services. The Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) has evolved its governance structure and established a strategic steering group with focused delivery workstreams to accelerate progress.
At the same time, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science, and Trade (DBIST) continues to progress the next steps for a Smart Property Data Scheme with the launch of a cross-sector Smart Data consultation enabled through the Data (Use and Access) Act. Together, these initiatives represent a significant opportunity to create a truly digital property market.
For OPDA, this is precisely the environment we were created to support and have spent 3 years proving that it works for consumers and for industry.
The challenge now is not identifying the destination. It is building the standards, trust frameworks and accreditation mechanisms that will allow the entire ecosystem to get there together.
The MHCLG Announcement: A Clear Signal of Government Intent
The government’s June 2026 announcement on homebuying transformation was one of the most important policy statements the sector has seen in years.
The core message is simple. Property transactions need to become faster, more reliable and more transparent. Government estimates suggest that one in three transactions currently fall through, creating more than £400 million of wasted costs annually, while transaction times continue to average close to five months.
The announcement identified several areas where reform will be delivered:
- Greater availability of digitised property information
- Improved sharing of data between trusted participants
- Enhanced interoperability across the transaction chain
- Wider adoption of digital identity services
- Reduction of duplication throughout the process
With a firm commitment for digital property transactions to be mandated by 2029.
Government also confirmed the importance of the collaborative work done with OPDA and industry and the success of supported pilots aimed at opening up local authority data and accelerating digitisation across the property ecosystem.
This matters because it recognises a fundamental reality. Property transactions are, at their heart, information transactions. Before a property can change hands, hundreds of pieces of information must be collected, verified, exchanged and relied upon by multiple organisations. Improving the flow of that information is therefore one of the most effective ways to improve the overall customer experience.
Digitalisation is not simply about replacing paper with PDFs. It is about creating structured, reusable, trusted data that can travel securely across the transaction journey. This distinction is critical. True transformation only happens when information becomes interoperable and can be understood consistently across different systems, organisations and use cases.
“Digitalisation is not simply about replacing paper with PDFs. It is about creating structured, reusable, trusted data that can travel securely across the transaction journey.”
Maria Harris, Chair of OPDA
The Evolution of the Digital Property Market Steering Group
Under MHCLG’s leadership, the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) has undergone an important restructure. The DPMSG was originally established to bring together key stakeholders across all industry verticals, government, and technology. Its purpose has always been to create the collaborative environment needed to accelerate digital adoption across the property market. Over the last year, that collaboration has deepened considerably.
The steering group has expanded engagement across the property sector, has developed the Digital Property Information Protocol (DPIP), and supported the first Smart Property Data Trust Framework sandbox helping define roles, responsibilities and pathways for digitisation. It has also strengthened collaboration between industry, government and stakeholders.
The reforms created an opportunity to repurpose the group. Most importantly, the governance structure is now becoming more delivery focused. Rather than concentrating solely on engagement, the work is increasingly strategic and organised around delivery groups aligned to specific outcomes. The transformation roadmap identifies six prioritised delivery areas:
- Digital Upfront Information
- Searches and Local Authority Data Sharing
- Education
- Qualified Electronic Signatures and Digital Verification
- Innovation and AI
- Smart Property Data
These priorities provide a practical framework for turning broad reform objectives into implementable programmes of work. This is an important shift because transformation and the delivery of Smart Property Data will not be achieved through policy statements alone.
It requires technical standards.
It requires operational trust.
It requires clear governance.
And it requires industry-wide adoption.
The delivery-group approach allows subject matter experts from across the ecosystem to focus on solving specific challenges while remaining aligned to a shared vision for the future property market.
The Wider Opportunity: Smart Data Across the UK Economy
The property sector’s transformation should not be viewed in isolation. It forms part of a much larger national progression to implement Smart Data and improve experiences for consumers.
The Data (Use and Access) Act created the powers that enable Smart Data schemes to be developed across different sectors of the economy. Smart Data enables the secure, consent-driven sharing of customer and business information with authorised third parties, creating opportunities for innovation, competition and improved consumer outcomes.
Many people will already be familiar with the success and regular users of Open Banking. Smart Data builds on these proven and scalable principles:
- Customer control
- Secure data sharing
- Standardised interfaces
- Trusted third-party participation
- Interoperable digital ecosystems
Government has identified a number of priority sectors where Smart Data could create significant value, including finance, energy, transport, digital services and property. This cross-sector perspective is particularly important and nowhere more so than property.
Consumers do not experience life through isolated industry verticals. A home move will regularly involve mortgages, insurance, utilities, identity and verification, conveyancing, survey information, local authority records and financial services data. If Smart Data principles are to succeed, they must work consistently across these interconnected experiences.
The property industry therefore has a unique opportunity not only to modernise its own processes, but also to become a leading example of how Smart Data can deliver tangible consumer benefit and prove that schemes can be synchronised.
“A home move will regularly involve mortgages, insurance, utilities, identity and verification, conveyancing, survey information, local authority records and financial services data. If Smart Data principles are to succeed, they must work consistently across these interconnected experiences.”
Maria Harris, Chair of OPDA
Why Standards Matter More Than Ever
As enthusiasm for digital transformation grows, it is easy to focus on technology platforms, applications and user interfaces. However, successful digital ecosystems are built on something much more fundamental. They are built on standards.
Without common standards, digitalisation often creates new silos rather than removing old ones. Information may become electronic, but it remains difficult to exchange, verify or reuse. This is where OPDA is playing an essential role in the delivery.
Our mission has always been to support the creation, development and adoption of open standards that enable trusted property data exchange across the entire ecosystem. We’ve proven it in our sandbox, and our members are bringing it to life with real customers on real transactions.
We believe transformation requires three interconnected layers:
1. Data Standards
Every participant, from central government, local authorities and HMLR to proptech start-ups need a common language.
Property information must be described and represented consistently so that data created by one organisation can be understood and consumed by another.
This means common definitions, agreed data models, and a structured approach to data and credentials exchange.
The Smart Property Data standards we custodian provide the foundations for this interoperability, supporting reusable and machine-readable property information.
2. Technical Standards
Interoperability requires more than data definitions.
We need technical frameworks and tools that support secure exchange, validation, version control and implementation consistency.
Technology providers should not have to reinvent integration models every time they connect with another participant.
Shared technical approaches reduce complexity, accelerate innovation and lower adoption barriers across the property sector and across smart data schemes.
3. Trust & Governance Standards
Perhaps most importantly, participants must trust the ecosystem.
Consumers need confidence that their information is being handled responsibly and with the right liability and consent mechanisms.
Businesses need confidence in the provenance and integrity of data.
Regulators need confidence that governance arrangements support compliance, transparency and accountability.
Trust is not something we can simply assume. It must be designed into the system from the outset, and it must work with every other smart data scheme.
The OPDA Role in Accreditation
As digital ecosystems mature, trust and evidence of meeting agreed standards increasingly become a competitive and customer experience differentiator. This is why OPDA has been developing its accreditation programme.
Accreditation provides a mechanism through which organisations can demonstrate alignment with agreed principles, adherence to open standards, and contribute to a more trusted property data ecosystem which puts consumers at the heart of their transaction.
Our vision is straightforward. If consumers, mortgage lenders, property professionals, government departments, and technology providers are expected to rely on shared digital infrastructure, there must be transparent ways of demonstrating commitment and conformance to data, technical, quality, interoperability and responsible governance practices.
Accreditation is therefore not simply a badge. It is part of the governance and trust architecture needed to support Smart Property Data at scale. As standards evolve and adoption grows, accreditation can help ensure confidence across the ecosystem while encouraging continuous improvement and collaboration.
From Policy to Practice
The convergence we are seeing between government policy, sector leadership and Smart Data regulation is significant. MHCLG is driving homebuying reform. DPMSG is the digitisation delivery structure. DBIST is advancing the broader Smart Data agenda. Industry participants are increasingly aligning around shared objectives.
And OPDA is focused on creating and driving adoption of the standards, trust frameworks and accreditation mechanisms required to make all of this work in practice.
None of these initiatives succeeds in isolation. The real opportunity comes from connecting them.
A digital property market requires trusted digital property information. Trusted information requires common standards. Common standards require governance. Governance requires adoption. Adoption requires confidence.
That is the ecosystem challenge we are collectively addressing and that the OPDA standards will underpin.
Looking Ahead
After 5 years of working across the sector to get to this point, I believe we have reached a pivotal moment for the UK property market.
For the first time legislation, government policy, industry collaboration and regulatory innovation are moving in the same direction. The focus is shifting away from diagnosing problems and towards implementing solutions.
There is still a great deal of work to do. Standards must be adopted. Systems must interoperate. Trust frameworks must mature. Organisations must embrace new ways of working. But the direction of travel is now guaranteed.
A future where property information is digital, reusable, portable, trusted and consumer-centric is no longer a distant aspiration. It is now a deliverable programme of work.
At OPDA, we are proud to be contributing to that future through the continued development of Smart Property Data standards for data, technical interoperability, trust and accreditation.
Because transforming homebuying is not simply about making transactions faster. It is about creating a property market that works better for everyone.
