We’ve probably all had enough of people campaigning in recent weeks but I have to admit to one disappointment with the General Election.
There was plenty about housing in the manifestos and the new government certainly has ambitious plans, but no party called for what I consider a straightforward win-win for both consumers and estate agents - that is, the simplification of the house buying process.
If we’re all about change these days, how about transforming the over-complicated, slow and sometimes heartbreaking way we sell and buy homes?
Many agents, I know, share my impatience with the lack of progress on this, and I appreciate that trade organisations and cross-industry bodies are in talks to get things moving.
But if you need evidence of how far we still have to go, look at these statistics.
Rightmove says it takes an average of over seven months from when someone puts their home up for sale until they move. Despite the odd element of the process being digitised and apparently modernised, it’s still a desperately long time.
Because of the absence of information for buyers upfront - again, despite some attempts by some agents and conveyancers - there were 312,770 fall-throughs on the UK residential property market in 2022 (the latest data) according to property analysts TwentyCi.
And a survey of 2,000 home movers by a conveyancing firm found that 72% felt they had suffered stress-related health problems when they last moved - issues like anxiety, an inability to switch off, sleep deprivation and more frequent arguments with loved ones.
Frankly, it’s not good enough that we treat buyers and sellers this way - and not good enough that agents and other players in the property transaction business go through hell too, especially when the chain breaks and frustration hits everyone involved.
I’m not apportioning blame to any of the many elements involved in buying and selling: it’s the system that’s broken, rather than any player within it.
But I hope agents will join me in thinking that a new government with a thumping majority might just be the right time to look at this subject anew.
Just before the election was called an all-party group of MPs began an inquiry into improving the home buying and selling process.
Unlike actual legislation going through Parliament, this group’s work was not lost at the calling of the election so the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee will meet again in the coming weeks, albeit with new MPs filling the seats.
They themselves cannot change the law but they can at least shine another light on the delays and the anguish caused, not least to the efficient working of the agency, legal and surveying industries who often have abortive work as a result of ‘the system’.
Now on Move iQ there is a host of advice for sellers to prepare their homes and get information ready at an early stage; likewise our guides for buyers emphasise the importance of funding and other upfront considerations when it comes to budgets.
These are invaluable for buyers and sellers operating the current system.
But in the long run we can all do better still. So what do we want instead?
It’s open to debate - and heaven knows we’ve had a lot of that on this issue! - but let’s start with the maximum amount of upfront information for buyers.
This would reduce the number of abortive viewings - which agents have to do - and would mean that if purchasers get cold feet about a home, it’s much earlier on in the timeline.
Buyers would have to have their own ducks in a row with guaranteed funding in place and other basic information available before they even register with agents.
We should also have much firmer rules on offers and when they are accepted, to slash gazundering and gazumping - if needs be, introducing non-returnable deposits at a key stage of the sales process to lock in purchasers and safeguard sellers from buyer U-turns.
Properly funded - and digitised - search facilities in each council should have minimum response times whatever the authority; and more use of electronic signatures throughout the process would be a step in the right direction.
And above all, uniformity of approach on digitally converting property data and documents which can be shared with all parties to the transaction, with only commercially confidential information excluded from the sharing process.
Utopian? Of course - but with Britain getting a political makeover with pledges to get the country moving and competitive again, how long can we seriously accept our present
system is the best we can manage?
Are you on board?
