The Intermediary – September 2026 - Flipbook - Page 48
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
From safety net to
starting line
F
or years, the property
survey has occupied an
awkward position in the
homebuying process. A
buyer finds a property,
makes an offer and
begins the process of buying it. Only
then does a survey enter the picture,
assessing the property aer the
commitment has already begun.
The survey has therefore become
something of a safety net. The
Government’s proposed homebuying
reforms could change that.
Its reform roadmap sets out plans
for sellers to prepare sales packs
before a property is listed. The aim is
to give prospective buyers important
information earlier and reduce the
likelihood of critical issues emerging
aer an offer has been accepted.
This could change the role of the
surveyor. Traditionally, a survey
answers a question that comes
relatively late: what problems
does this property have? Under
the proposed model, condition
information could help answer a
much bigger question: do I want to
buy this property at all?
Time to act
Information only improves a
transaction if it arrives early enough
to influence a decision. Discovering
significant defects aer an offer has
been accepted can leave buyers having
already invested time, money and
emotion in a purchase. They may
renegotiate, withdraw or continue
regardless.
The Government is trying to address
precisely this problem. Its roadmap
says transactions take around 120 days
on average, and around one in three
fall through.
But moving condition information
to the start of the process raises
another question: can the surveying
industry deliver it at the scale
and speed required? If condition
assessments become a routine part of
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The Intermediary | September 2026
bringing homes to market, demand
for surveying services could rise
significantly. The Government has
recognised the importance of capacity,
commiing to work with the sector on
training, skills and capability as the
reforms develop.
A faster transaction is of lile
benefit if a buyer is waiting weeks
for the information needed. Equally,
speed cannot mean reducing the
quality of the assessment. Earlier
information only creates greater
certainty if people can trust it.
This is where technology has an
important role.
Future experts
There is a tendency to frame the
future of surveying as a choice
between technology and professional
expertise. It should be neither. The
beer question is what genuinely
requires a surveyor’s judgement and
what technology can make faster,
more consistent and more reliable.
At Houzecheck, artificial
intelligence (AI) is already being
used as an additional layer of quality
assurance, assessing reports for
consistency and completeness
and prompting surveyors where
wording or other elements could be
strengthened. Structured reporting
and digital workflows can also reduce
repetitive administration.
That distinction becomes
increasingly important if surveying
moves from something a buyer
commissions aer making an offer
to something that helps determine
whether they make one.
A condition assessment needs to
be independent, understandable and
consistent enough to give consumers
confidence. It also needs to work for
professionals further down the chain.
If condition information is
produced before a property is
marketed, it becomes part of the
property’s wider information record.
Instead of different professionals
RICHARD SEXTON
is commercial director
at Houzecheck
discovering or requesting information
at different stages, the transaction can
begin with a more complete picture.
Puing a survey online is useful.
Making it quicker to instruct is beer.
But the bigger prize is creating reliable
information that can move through
the transaction without repeatedly
being recreated, checked or chased.
Starting line
There are still important questions
to answer. What should a condition
assessment cover? How long should
it remain valid? How should findings
be presented to consumers? How can
consistency improve without stripping
away professional judgement? And
how can enough surveying capacity
be built without simply moving
the boleneck from conveyancing
to surveying?
These questions will determine
whether the reforms genuinely make
transactions faster. The opportunity is
therefore bigger than simply making
surveys quicker.
For buyers, earlier condition
information could mean identifying
an unsuitable property before months
of work have been invested. For
sellers, it could mean addressing
issues sooner and reducing the risk
of a transaction collapsing later. For
brokers and lenders, it could provide
greater certainty about the property
underpinning a mortgage application.
The survey, in other words, is no
longer just the safety net beneath a
decision that has already been made. It
could become part of the starting line.
If the Government gets the model
right, the biggest change will not
be that transactions move faster. It
will be that buyers, sellers and the
professionals supporting them can
make beer decisions earlier. ●
