Government formally announced to the world that they are digitising the homebuying process and committing to the smart data, trust standards, and other initiatives we need to overhaul the entire customer and user homebuying experience.
The announcement was led by Angela Raynor on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg before Matthew Pennycook MP shared the press release on 9th Feb:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/home-buying-and-selling-to-become-quicker-and-cheaper
To say that we’re delighted, proud of every one of our OPDA member firms, and honoured to be part of making this happen is an understatement. The commitment and hard work of everyone on our executive team and association member firms to evidence the need, appetite and ambition of industry was, and continues to be, pivotal in supporting MHCLG.
“That’s why the department is working hand-in-hand with the property market, supported by HM Land Registry (HMLR), and is today announcing a 12-week project to identify the design and implementation of agreed rules on data for the sector, so that it can easily be shared between conveyancers, lenders and other parties involved in a transaction. HMLR will also build on its work in digitising property information and lead 10-month pilots with a number of councils to identify the best approach to opening up more of their data and making it digital, whilst the government pushes ahead with plans for digital identity verification services including in the property sector.
This will all be carried out in conjunction with the Digital Property Market Steering Group – a collection of industry and government experts committed to digitalising the home buying and selling process and delivering this change.”
Lots of hard work to be done but this is the start of the end, not the beginning. Industry momentum has gone past the point of talking and thinking, our members are cracking on and getting this delivered. We look forward to working with MHCLG and DPMSG to bring the next phases to life and making smart property data a reality.
