Government announces once-in-a-generation overhaul of the home buying and selling system

The roadmap identifies six root causes of the broken system: missing, late or inconsistent upfront information; a lack of clear standards for property agents; weak early commitments that make it too easy for parties to withdraw after others have incurred costs; limited transparency for buyers and sellers; repeated processes driving delays and costs; and a lack of digitalisation leaving the process manual and paper-based.  In addition, sellers can be let down by freeholders, managing agents or estate managers who take too long to provide information needed to sell and charge extortionate amounts for it.

The end-game from the roadmap is to introduce mandatory sales packs which must be completed prior to property listings (which will include relevant searches and a property condition report), establish digital property logbooks, introduce binding conditional contracts once sales packs are embedded, speed up AML checks and support AI conveyancing tech, digitise property information (including local searches) and allow data sharing, introduce mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents and introduce a code of practice setting out minimum standards for property agents, supported by the DMCCA.

The Government intends to introduce legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to require the preparation of sales packs prior to listing, including searches and a property condition report, to ensure prospective buyers have access to comprehensive property information prior to making an offer and reduce the likelihood of critical information coming to light late in the transaction.  Sellers will retain overall responsibility for ensuring the sales pack is prepared, with relevant professionals responsible for gathering and verifying relevant information, for example, conveyancers on legal and title information and surveyors on condition-related information.

The Government anticipates sales packs will include: tenure type; Council Tax Band; EPC rating; property type; title information (including known covenants) and documents; seller ID verification; leasehold and freehold estate terms (service charges, ground rent etc.); building safety information; standard search results (local authority, drainage and water, environmental, locality-specific risks); general property information from a property questionnaire; a property condition assessment report tailored to the property's age and type; accessibility information; chain status; and a floor plan.  These details are subject to further development and industry engagement ahead of any legislation.

Guidance will be issued, which will be underpinned by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), which protects consumers from unfair trading practices and prohibits traders from omitting, or providing unclear, untimely or obscure, material information to consumers.  The onus is on the trader to determine what an average consumer needs to know to make an informed decision, and in the context of home buying and selling, the responsibility is largely on estate agents and other property professionals to provide this information upfront and at the earliest opportunity.  The non-statutory guidance is expected to be published later in 2026 to clarify how these existing duties apply in practice to information prepared by property professionals.

The Government believes that guidance providing estate agents with an indicative list of what is likely to be considered material information for most properties would help them meet their legal responsibilities and improve property transactions for consumers.  The proposed list includes: price; council tax and domestic rates; tenure (including lease length); ground rent or service charges; electricity, water and sewerage supply; heating type; broadband; mobile signal and coverage; property type; number and type of rooms; parking; accessibility and adaptations; rights and easements; flood risk; property construction; issues with the property (such as damp, subsidence, asbestos or Japanese knotweed); building safety defects; restrictions (listed property, conservation area, usage); coastal erosion; planning permission; and coalfield or mining area.

The DMCCA requires that material information is provided in any invitation to purchase, any communication that indicates the characteristics of the product and its price and appears to enable the consumer to take any decision about the product and that information is provided clearly, intelligibly and in a timely manner so that the consumer is likely to see it.  For home buying and selling, this suggests estate agents should consider including all the information that a prospective purchaser is likely to need in order to make an informed decision about whether to consider the property further – the listing should not omit information that could lead the purchaser to rule out the property if revealed at a later stage.

Providing material information in an unclear or misleading way, or omitting it altogether, can be considered a misleading omission, which is unlawful.  The Government is also aware that some estate agents knowingly disregard their responsibilities regarding material information because they believe requesting this information could deter sellers from listing their property with them.  Enforcement bodies include local authority trading standards teams, the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team, the Competition and Markets Authority, and consumer redress schemes.

The Government intends to introduce legislation, when parliamentary time allows, to require the use of binding conditional contracts in property transactions, and will only bring this legislation into force after sales packs are embedded.  Binding conditional contracts make a transaction legally binding much earlier, for example, once an offer is accepted, and are designed to secure each party's commitment to progress and complete the transaction by setting out clear terms both sides agree to meet; if a party breaks these terms by withdrawing without valid reason, they face a financial penalty.

The Government will publish a non-statutory Code of Practice later this year setting out minimum best practice standards for property agents and will consult next year on introducing mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents, with legislation to follow if the consultation outcome supports it.  The Code will be published on a non-statutory basis but the Government will keep this under review with a view to mandating adherence to its provisions by legislation if necessary, and making compliance a legal requirement for property agents.

Property professionals will be able to share trusted information seamlessly with others, reducing delays and the risk of fraud, and AI-enabled conveyancing technologies will support conveyancers and improve the efficiency of transactions.  The Government will complete the Local Land Charges programme by 2028 and develop a fully digital geospatial land register by 2035, combining geographic and ownership information so that vital property information will be instantly accessible online.

Leaseholders can face delays and high costs when selling their homes because essential information they need is held by freeholders or managing agents who often take too long or charge too much to share it, and homeowners on private or mixed-tenure estates face similar barriers.  The Government is taking forward a comprehensive programme of reform through the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, which provides new powers to set enforceable expectations on the timeliness and cost of providing relevant sales information, and the Government will use these powers to establish firm caps on fees and turnaround times for information requests and introduce a clear, standardised framework for requesting and delivering that information.

The Government estimates that first-time buyers would experience average net savings of £710 whilst home movers would on average save £400 per transaction, with final sellers on average seeing net costs rise by £310, which would be offset by greater certainty of a successful transaction.  Fall-through rates would reduce from one in three to one in seven, and transaction times would decrease by four weeks for buyers and two weeks for sellers.

In 2026, the Government will publish non-statutory material information guidance, identify sales pack information that can be voluntarily provided upfront, publish a non-statutory Code of Practice for property agents, explore training and apprenticeship support, prepare the sector for binding contracts, and commence the next stage of work to improve accessibility of key property data in local authorities.  In 2027 and 2028, it will publish an advisory Charter, consult on mandatory qualifications, facilitate uptake of digital ID and electronic signatures, consider which homeownership schemes require digital logbooks and packs, and consult on leasehold and freehold estates sales information legislation.  By the end of Parliament, subject to parliamentary time, legislation will require sales packs prior to listing, binding conditional contracts, and a framework for secure digital data sharing.

The Government considers it good practice for sellers to instruct their conveyancers prior to listing a property, noting that sellers' conveyancers are currently only instructed after a property has been listed, which is one reason key legal information is unavailable upfront.  The Government will publish non-statutory guidance to support estate agents in meeting their legal responsibilities, and will work with stakeholders to provide a standardised form for gathering material information.