Without collaboration, we can’t hope to get that improvement, and the buy-in from advisers and lenders is just as vital as it is from conveyancers, surveyors, agents, Land Registry and the government.
To that end, and specifically focusing on the benefits that digitisation and technology in general can bring to our process, we now have the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) which includes over 270 property sector and government guests all aiming to drive change, efficiencies, and improvements.
Ready for change
Just recently, the DPMSG published its first work programme – it was only established last year – which is based on five key objectives it is seeking to deliver in our market. Those are:
- No surprises and delays: focused on the provision and use of upfront information.
- Transparency and innovation: sharing information through an open protocol.
- Convenient and secure: using digital ID checks (just once) and e-signatures.
- Always improving: collaborative research to accelerate the use of emerging tech, such as AI.
- Open and collaborative: publishing research, activity programmes and delivering an annual summary of progress.
You might notice that the above objectives have been on the agenda for a number of years – and you’d be right. Certainly, we at the CA, and others who are members of the Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG) for example, have been keen to take forward a significant number of those measures outlined above.
Upfront info, digital ID and signatures, greater use of property logbooks are just a few you could mention, which we believe could deliver on those objectives, particularly in a ‘system’ where we still have over a third of all transactions falling through before they exchange or complete.
Something needs to be done
No one believes this is an acceptable figure, or situation, and a significant part of our focus has been not just on improving the time it takes to complete a transaction, but also giving all transactions the best chance of completing.
Advisers will be acutely aware of the damage fall-throughs and aborted transactions have, not just on the individuals involved, but also right across our industry in terms of the wasted time, effort, resources, money, etc involved in taking on a case only to see it collapse later on.
However, industry collaboration is one thing, but as we have seen time and time again in our space, without active buy-in from the key organisations, institutions and government departments who tend to shape these areas, we are not going to move as fast as we would like or, in all honesty, get to the point where we need to be.
Hence why it is highly important Land Registry is coordinating the DPMSG, in order to digitise the process and to put its considerable resource behind this, and of course that we have governmental buy-in to be able to take this forward.
Still a way to go
Which is not to say that all is well in the world, and we are close to success in all areas. Far from it. As someone who has been involved in driving for change in this area for more years than I care to remember, this is a road well-travelled and one that still has a long way to go.
However, I chair two sub-groups for the HBSG, and the DPMSG used the CA’s Digital Conveyancing Protocol as the foundation for its own Digital Property Protocol, and therefore we are having a direct influence on all the above.
We should not forget though that with so many moving parts to our process and our industry, we are still currently reliant on the industry both recognising the solutions and having firms voluntarily utilise them in order to deliver the gains across the piece.
This is particularly relevant in the conveyancing sector where we currently have thousands of firms working on transactions in any given year, and where many are unwilling to even engage with these advancements and the benefits they can offer.
Of course, there can be an element of voting with your feet on this one; advisers can choose not to recommend those firms who are still unable or unwilling to use these tech solutions, but we also have to accept that without mandation, the likelihood is that many transactions won’t benefit fully from the gains available.
It’s why we continue to call for government to mandate in this area.
While we wait for that, we hope we as a sector are able to present those firms who are focused on embracing change, who have adopted these time saving, greater certainty and enhanced security options, as the go-to businesses for you and your clients.
