A safer property market demands more than digitisation – it needs trust by design – Hesketh

Lenders, brokers, and conveyancers recognise the benefits of a more streamlined, transparent and secure home buying process, but the pace of change varies across the industry.

Many are exploring ways to improve certainty and reduce friction, but the current system remains fragmented and heavily reliant on manual intervention. Achieving frictionless, verified, end-to-end data flow will require continued collaboration and incremental adoption of new solutions over time. This is vital not only to reduce the administration burden that stakeholders feel every day, but also to reduce vulnerability and exposure to fraud.

Multiple emails, rekeying of client information and transferring of funds between several parties create stress for professionals and opportunity for fraudsters – putting consumers at risk of seeing life-changing sums diverted or lost in what is likely to be their biggest financial transaction.

A growing risk

Fraud is now one of the fastest-growing financial crimes in the UK. Around 40,000 fraud and cyber crime reports are recorded each month, representing almost 40% of total crime, and property transactions make attractive targets due to the value of money and urgency involved. Recent CERT UK figures show that 65% of UK law firms have experienced a cyber incident. Even more concerning, 30% of homebuyers say they have been a victim of fraud during the purchase process.

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The financial impact is stark. Between April 2024 and May 2025, fraud accounted for £11.7m in reported losses across 143 cases in London alone. These aren’t just numbers; they represent families losing deposits, lenders’ funds exposed, firms assuming liability and professionals facing irreparable reputational damage.

Digitisation has not removed risk from the property transaction process; it has reshaped where and how that risk appears. While new technologies have delivered efficiencies in part of the journey, many solutions operate in isolation. As a result, the connections between stages of the transaction chain remain vulnerable, particularly where manual checks or transfers still play a role. In many cases, the issue is not the presence of manual work itself, but the fact that it persists at the most sensitive points of the transaction journey.

At its core, a property transaction is the exchange of money for title. When viewed in these terms, the limitations of today’s tools and processes become more evident. Huge sums of money move between multiple parties, often under tight time pressures and with dependencies that heighten the strain on everyone involved. Each transition exposes funds to potential threats, including fraud tactics that exploit gaps in communication, intercept instructions and redirect payments. This environment underscores the need for more secure, consistent and reliable mechanisms at critical stages of the process without necessarily implying a wholesale redesign of the end-to-end journey.

Collaboration is key

Everyone feels the impact. Many of the vulnerabilities stem from the infrastructure that sits behind the conveyancing process, causing immense stress for a profession that is already at capacity. But this is not just a legal issue – brokers and lenders also face significant risk exposure, reduced operational certainty and growing pressure to deliver on their Consumer Duty and other regulatory obligations. Such a universal challenge means no one party can tackle this problem alone. Progress requires stakeholders to work together, aligning on approaches and adopting technology that strengthens the connections between key stages of the process.

Digital platforms, such as Pexa, are used to enable funds to move securely and seamlessly through verified payment rails rather than requiring manual intervention at multiple stages. This helps ensure payments are released only once all required checks are satisfied, reducing opportunities for interception or manipulation. Better still, with technology that can instruct the lodgement of title once funds are settled, it helps reduce the risk of failed registrations.

This is not theoretical. Pexa has already processed more than £240m of remortgage settlements through its platform, moving lender funds securely via Pexa Pay in a single, controlled workflow. Each transaction only progresses once the required checks are completed, reducing manual touchpoints, narrowing the window for interception and helping to lower the risk of failed or delayed completions. Building on this, the platform is now also live for sale and purchase transactions in the UK, applying the same principles to more complex chains.

For brokers, this translates into smoother, more efficient completions, making positive reviews, referrals and repeat business more likely as clients feel more confident about moving again in the future. For lenders, it means increased control over their funding, improved liquidity and ability to lend, together with greater peace of mind that their charge will be secured. For law firms, it is a significant reduction in risk and exposure, providing a positive step toward a more sustainable professional indemnity landscape over the long term.

The challenge now is industry alignment. If we continue to digitise in silos, we simply replace analogue risk with digital risk. Connecting those islands, and ensuring identity, funds flow and data security are applied consistently throughout, is where the real transformation lies. A secure, digital framework, supported by clear standards and shared adoption across brokers, lenders, conveyancers and regulators, is essential.

Proactive leadership

Fraud in property transactions is not an unavoidable outcome. It is often a reflection of systems and processes that have not yet fully adapted to modern expectations. There is meaningful scope to reduce risk, build client trust and strengthen the reliability of transactions by adopting technologies that place security and verification at their core. These tools are increasingly available and, as fraud threats evolve, the industry has an opportunity to consider how best to use them to support safer outcomes.

Mortgage professionals are well-positioned to influence this shift. Clients turn to brokers not only for products but for reassurance during what is often a stressful process. By advocating for verified digital ecosystems, secure payment rails and consistent standards, brokers can contribute to a market that becomes progressively streamlined, transparent and resilient.

The industry is at an important point of reflection. Continuing to layer new tools onto traditional processes will only go so far; connecting solutions more effectively has the potential to deliver stronger, more sustainable improvements. The opportunity for collective movement exists – what matters now is how the sector chooses to respond, and how it collaborates to make incremental but meaningful advances.