The economic case for fixing the offer-to-completion process – Vaughan

For all parties involved, a failed transaction means wasted time and money. For the wider market, it also represents a significant loss of economic activity.

Recent analysis from Rightmove highlights the scale of the issue. Based on last year’s 1.03 million housing transactions in England, around 6% of agreed sales fell through and did not return to the market within 12 months, representing more than £900m in lost economic activity.

That includes around £392m in estate agency commission and roughly £515m in potential stamp duty receipts. Scotland and Wales also saw losses, with an estimated £7m and £23m respectively linked to fall-through transactions.

Just as important is how often transactions falter before they complete. Around 23% of property deals fall through at least once, pointing to a process that can lose momentum even when it ultimately succeeds.

Inevitably, this exposure to high levels of transactional failure creates practical challenges for lenders around pipeline management, funding and customer experience.

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Mortgage offers may be issued months before completion, yet visibility across the later stages of the process can be limited. Communication between lenders and conveyancers is still often handled through emails, phone calls and documents shared across different systems.

Without a consistent, shared view of progress, it can be harder to track cases or identify issues early. The process becomes more reliant on updates being requested and shared, rather than information flowing more naturally between parties.

The role of panel management

Conveyancer panel management plays an important role in supporting lender oversight and risk management. A first-class conveyancing panel helps ensure a level of quality, assurance and more certainty in a process that involves multiple parties and regulatory requirements.

As the mortgage market continues to evolve, there is an opportunity to consider how technology can further support these established processes.

The wider industry has made strong progress in digitising earlier stages of the mortgage journey. Extending this progress into panel-related processes could help provide more timely insight, improve consistency of information and strengthen links between panel oversight and live transaction activity.

This is not about changing the role of the conveyancer, but about supporting them with better communication, more upfront data, and more interoperability so that lenders and conveyancers can work with greater clarity.

Learning from other markets

Other countries offer useful examples of how more connected systems can support the transaction process.

Markets such as Norway, Finland and Estonia have introduced digital frameworks that enable property data to be shared earlier and more consistently. This supports smoother progress and reduces uncertainty during the later stages of a transaction.

South Africa provides another example. Over the past two decades, digital platforms have been developed to connect lenders and conveyancers across the transaction lifecycle. Technology providers such as E4 have supported this by helping move key workflows onto shared digital platforms, which now support the majority of mortgage transactions in that particular market.

The value here is not in copying another system, but in recognising how improved connectivity in a fresh UK-built platform can support better outcomes.

A clear opportunity

The £900m identified by Rightmove highlights the economic value linked to improving the property transaction process.

Reducing fall-throughs would support more consistent completions, better visibility and stronger outcomes for buyers, lenders and conveyancers alike.

The UK mortgage market has already shown how effective digitisation can be at the front end of the journey. Applying similar thinking to the offer-to-completion phase – and supporting existing processes such as panel management with more connected technology – offers a clear path to improving efficiency across the system.

The opportunity is not to replace what works, but to support it more effectively.