The Intermediary – August 2026 - Flipbook - Page 18
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
Reform will redefine
the role of property
intelligence
T
he Government’s Home
Buying and Selling
Reform Roadmap
has been welcomed
as one of the most
ambitious aempts
in decades to modernise the housing
transaction. Faster transactions,
fewer fall-throughs, digital property
information and mandatory upfront
sales packs all point towards a more
efficient market.
The ambition is clear. By the end
of this Parliament, sellers will be
expected to prepare a comprehensive
sales pack before a property is listed,
including searches and a property
condition report, supported by digital
logbooks and beer data sharing
across the transaction chain.
Much of the commentary has,
understandably, focused on reducing
transaction times. Given that one in
three sales currently falls through,
there is an obvious economic prize in
making the process more certain – not
least in terms of tax revenue.
Yet the more interesting question
may be what these reforms mean for
property information itself; that is
where the long-term implications for
lenders, conveyancers, valuers and
surveyors begin to emerge.
Digital roadmap
The most significant component
is arguably not the digital
infrastructure, or even the move
towards earlier binding agreements.
It is the proposed property condition
report siing within the mandatory
sales pack. If that document becomes
trusted by buyers, lenders and
conveyancers alike, it fundamentally
changes where information is
gathered, who gathers it, and when
decisions are made. This naturally
raises two questions.
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The Intermediary | August 2026
What exactly constitutes a property
condition report? Is it simply a factual
record of visible defects, or does it
evolve into something approaching
a modern Home Report, combining
condition, risk indicators and wider
property intelligence? The value
of the report will depend entirely
on its consistency and credibility.
Buyers, lenders and insurers all
require different information and
any report that aempts to satisfy
everyone without clear standards risks
satisfying nobody.
The second question is one
of economics. Although the
roadmap shis responsibility for
commissioning the information
towards the seller, experience suggests
the buyer ultimately pays somewhere
within the transaction. Whether
through pricing, negotiation or
transaction costs, the economics
rarely disappear. The challenge
therefore becomes ensuring the
information delivers genuine value
rather than simply moving costs from
one side of the transaction to the other.
For lenders, the implications are
potentially even more profound. As
property data becomes richer and
condition information is assembled
before marketing begins, lenders may
become increasingly comfortable
relying upon verified upfront
information for large numbers of
relatively standard properties.
The role shis from confirming
the ordinary to interpreting the
exceptional. This is a transition
we see elsewhere across financial
services, as automation increasingly
handles repeatable activity while
experienced professionals concentrate
on situations where judgement creates
genuine value.
If the industry successfully
develops trusted digital property
STEVE GOODALL
is managing director at e.surv
records, the value of surveying may
naturally become less transactionbased and more continuous. Rather
than information being created
solely because somebody is buying or
remortgaging, property intelligence
could evolve into an ongoing asset that
is updated throughout a building’s life.
Imagine the leverage opportunity
for borrowers and lenders as portfolio
monitoring, climate resilience,
insurance, retrofit planning, asset
management and consumer decisionmaking all benefit from richer,
continuously maintained property
information.
The Government has been careful
to acknowledge the lessons from the
unsuccessful Home Information
Packs, and has commied to phased
implementation built around digital
standards and industry collaboration.
This is an aempt to build
digital infrastructure for property
transactions that can support a far
wider range of participants across the
housing market. Success, however,
will depend on market confidence that
condition reports are accurate and that
digital information remains current
so lenders can rely upon what they
receive, knowing that professional
judgement accompanies technology,
rather than being displaced by it.
The roadmap promises faster home
buying. The bigger opportunity lies in
creating a richer ecosystem of trusted
property intelligence. If the industry
gets that right, the reforms will not
simply accelerate transactions, they
will redefine how we understand,
assess and manage residential
property for decades to come. ●
