Pexa’s multi-stakeholder initiative, Future Property Transaction (FPT) Group, released its Future of Residential Transactions report, detailing the potential for the market.
It found that even without any major reforms to the home buying and property sector, there is the opportunity for “significant, additional and rapid productivity gains” across the market.
The report said that enhancements to processes and collaborative digital adoption could reduce the current mortgage completion timeline from an average of 126 days to 29 days from application.
The report follows a pilot in West Yorkshire over 12 months, where 40,000 lines of anonymised data were pooled from lenders, conveyancers and tech providers. The FTP Group identified actions that could address challenges of fragmentation and inefficiencies.
The group made recommendations, including the encouragement of early legal instruction upon property listing and wider adoption of digital onboarding to address post-offer delays.
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It also suggested launching an integrated digital transaction pilot and enhanced upfront leasehold information trials, and highlighted the need for a unified digital identity.
Joe Pepper, UK CEO of Pexa, said: “The FPT Group was set up to provide a collaborative space in which all industry players can drive progress in the home buying journey. The market is under immense pressure, with consumers increasingly expecting faster progress and clearer updates, so anything we can do to ease the burden for conveyancers who are trying to deliver good consumer outcomes should be a top priority.
“There are clearly steps that we can take to drive progress in the short term. Longer term, the government is quite rightly looking holistically at what positive reforms can support our industry and improve the home buying process. This shared endeavour shows the ability and willingness of the sector to come together and drive positive change. What is critical now, for both the industry and government, is to act on this insight.”
The group said that while the total time to move was around 200 days, there were already tools in place to address friction points.
It said transitioning mortgage timelines from manual to digital workflows could reduce the application-to-completion period by 53%, and digital source of funds tools could improve efficiency, reducing processing times from 2-3 weeks to as short as 2-3 days.
The group also said a lack of clarity regarding management company details meant leasehold transactions took around 34 days longer than freeholds.
Pepper added: “It is clear that the priorities for the sector include digitising processes to address the top pain points, such as AML checks, creating a system that is more transparent and upfront with data, and setting far more realistic expectations with consumers for what is a significant legal undertaking.
“The stats around the time saving for digitising checks and the transfer of funds simply cannot be ignored.”
