OPDA founding member, Pexa UK, has launched a working group made up of lenders, brokers, law firms and other bodies aimed at “making the property transaction process more efficient and seamless”.
The Future Property Transactions Group comprises Leeds Building Society, Legal & General, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Mortgage Advice Bureau, Arch Law, with support from Open Property Data Association.
The body will pilot its efforts in West Yorkshire and plans to “leverage the region’s key strengths across the financial, legal and property sectors to showcase the benefits of widespread, efficient collaboration across the board”.
Property portal Pexa adds: “The data and technology integration this can bring will drive enhanced efficiency, significant cost and time savings, improved customer experience and a reduced risk of fraud.
“As such it will establish a regional proof point for a solution to a national problem, with ambitions to collect the quantitative and qualitative data required to prove the need for a wider, countrywide roll-out.”
Leeds Building Society chief executive Richard Fearon says: “At Leeds, our purpose is to put homeownership within reach of more people, generation after generation.
“We of course achieve that through our mortgage lending and challenging the structural unfairness within the housing market, but also by making buying a home as easy as possible.”
Pexa UK chief executive Joe Pepper points out: “Transactions are often inefficient because of the siloed nature of each stage of the journey and, with an overarching view of the process and the proven ability to develop and implement technology to help drive change.
“We are in a prime position to help bring all stakeholders together and enable better collaboration to ease the issues being faced across the board.”
Maria Harris, chair of OPDA, congratuled the group adding that this is exactly the type of collaboration and industry wide engagement needed to bring together a new and improved customer journey.
