Steps such as waiting for a survey cause particular frustration for brokers, with many turning to automated options or desktop valuations to cut costs.
But automated or desktop surveys have triggered widespread industry anxiety that remote assessments are cutting corners and ignoring critical structural liabilities. One study from Alto estate agents showed that 73% of property professionals do not trust the figures generated by these automated valuation models (AVMs).
So how can the industry use technology to speed up the process without causing widespread mistrust?
According to one expert, increased use of drones and aerial footage can provide both speed and accuracy. Jonathan Ambrose, a legal disrepair surveyor and founder and operator of DroneSurveyors.co.uk, said that when it comes to cheeking the state of a roof, for example, a drone is the quickest way.
“In 10 minutes, you can spot lifted ridge tiles, loose flashing, blocked gutters, slipped slates – the small issues that turn into five-figure repair bills two winters later,” he noted.
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A study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveys (RICS) found that integrating these drone analytics into property assessments cuts on-site scheduling down by 25%, as well as providing more detailed evidence than can be shown elsewhere.
The increasing usage of drones in property purchases seems a near-certainty in the coming years, though companies that use them must be aware of strict guidelines.
What’s driving drone adoption?
As well as speed, drones have a number of other advantages for surveyors. Drone footage is timestamped and permanent, providing a digital record of the property’s condition at the point of sale, giving lenders the certainty they crave.
Sending a drone up can be less costly than scaffolding. A recent RICS study found that integrating drone diagnostics into commercial asset and housing evaluations drops overall structural inspection costs by approximately 34% – efficiencies that can now be brought to bear on residential transactions.
Other advantages include a dramatic improvement in cost, speed, and accuracy over traditional manual property assessments. By bypassing the logistical delays of setting up scaffolding and ladders, aerial technology allows a surveyor to complete a comprehensive visual sweep of a roofline or chimney stack in under 15 minutes. This rapid digital data capture provides immediate clarity on potential liabilities, cutting on-site scheduling down by 25% compared to conventional tracking methods. Furthermore, the accuracy of high-density imagery ensures that hidden defects are caught and documented instantly, pre-empting the late-stage down-valuations that frequently derail transaction timelines.
Andrew Pemberton, senior manager of surveying at The Professional Snagging Company, said they also bring more clarity and accuracy.
“When used appropriately, drones can help make a property survey more comprehensive by giving surveyors access to areas that are otherwise difficult or unsafe to inspect without costly scaffolding. For example, drones can provide clear imagery of roofs, chimneys, guttering, flashings and high-level brickwork, which are areas buyers may not be able to assess properly before committing to a purchase.
“This can help provide a clearer understanding of the overall condition of the property and highlight defects that may otherwise go unnoticed. That said, drone technology is there to support the surveyor’s professional judgement rather than replace it. The real value comes from combining experienced inspection methodology with the additional visibility and evidence drones can provide. Used correctly, they can help buyers make more informed decisions and better understand the potential maintenance or repair costs associated with a property,” he added.
Increased demand following the cladding crisis
The cladding crisis that followed the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 arguably did more than anything to transform the use of technology in the surveying industry. After the fire, there was an unprecedented, overwhelming demand for rapid structural surveying that traditional inspection methods simply could not meet.
To restore market confidence and protect underwriter risk, the industry introduced the External Wall System (EWS1) assessment form. This required qualified structural engineers and fire safety professionals to physically inspect, test, and sign off on the external facade materials of thousands of buildings.
The sheer volume of work required an acceleration in technological adaptation, and major data networks and risk platforms scaled up to utilise drone footage and satellite imagery to screen over one million UK properties for cladding risk, proving to high street lenders that aerial data could provide an indisputable visual audit trail at a massive corporate scale.
Now, these tools are beginning to trickle down to be used on surveys for standard residential homes. Increasingly, lenders, insurers, and everyday surveyors view a drone sweep not as a futuristic alternative, but as a standard, cost-effective baseline for capturing real-time physical evidence of the state of ordinary homes.
Consumer-focused businesses like Checkatrade are already using drone footage for individual residential properties. The building comparison site’s business incubator – Checkatrade Labs – is launching drone-based roof surveys and said they could reduce the cost of a roof survey by 75%.
Sunjiv Shah, vice president for Labs at Checkatrade, said the new service allows a roof to be inspected quickly and safely “without the need for scaffolding or manual access”.
“Homeowners can see exactly what’s been identified, what may need attention and what to monitor over time, rather than relying solely on a tradesperson’s assessment,” he said.
This is just one more example of drone footage becoming mainstream and more widely accepted by consumers.
How property professionals use drones
Several progressive RICS-accredited surveying practices across the UK have already started to bundle drone surveys into their standard packages. By doing this, they remove the caveat from surveys that states that the roof, chimney stacks, and high-level gutters were completely obscured from ground view when a survey was made, which shifts financial risk onto buyers, who must otherwise hire a roofing contractor.
Teams such as Novello Chartered Surveyors and Henderson Building Surveyors routinely use advanced drone surveys alongside Level 2 and Level 3 assessments to catch hidden defects like chimney cracks and slipping tiles safely from the ground.
Meanwhile, studies show that when estate agents use drone footage in their particulars, homes sell faster. A market study from Impact Aerial showed that residential listings utilising immersive, high-resolution aerial drone sweeps saw a 31% reduction in the total time on market compared to properties with ground-level photos. Consumers were able to see any potential problems earlier on, and this prevented chains from breaking.
Drones with thermo-imaging cameras are also being used to produce accurate Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for residences and to estimate the costs of retrofitting draughty properties.
Legal ramifications
But while drones can be helpful for property transactions, all firms that use them must make sure they are compliant. Data collection like this cannot be done by hobbyists flying recreational toys. Commercial drone operations are strictly governed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the binding RICS Earth Observation and Aerial Surveys Global Professional Standards.
Surveyors may need training and a valid CAA Flyer ID, though exact requirements depend on the type of drone used.
If you are capturing footage of nearby properties, you should inform them of this before proceeding, and once drone footage has been captured, those who have filmed it must ensure it is stored correctly.
Tipping the balance
While capturing and keeping drone footage needs new capabilities and perhaps training, there seems little doubt that it has a benefit to the speed of the home buying process. But this begs one big question: if drones can speed up housing transactions, why are they still so slow?
Both drone footage and automated valuations can compress the surveying stage, but while legal bottlenecks still remain elsewhere due to outdated manual document processing, severe staff shortages within conveyancing firms, and delayed local authority land searches, customers will still be frustrated by the home buying process.
The rest of the property industry needs to follow suit with technology before meaningful strides will be taken to bring delays down. Drones are just the beginning.
