A property industry initiative has been officially launched aiming to bring the average ‘sales agreed to exchange’ period down to 28 from 109 days.

Put together by the Landmark Information Group and first mooted in February, the organisation of 23 leading property industry bodies including lenders, conveyancers and agents, has published a ‘bold and practical’ blueprint to fix the UK’s ‘broken’ property transaction process.

Called Project 28, its members include Connells, YOPA, HSBC, Legal & General, Lloyds, MAB, Nationwide and TwentyCI.

Its new charter calls time on a fragmented system where inefficiencies currently cost home movers around £400 million in fall-throughs annually, and drain around four million working days for estate agents and conveyancers who lose up to £1 billion in wasted effort per year, statistics show.

Project 28 wants to digitise key property information and enable more efficient data sharing and create a streamlined, digital-first property transaction process, and deliver a ‘critical boost to the UK’s economy’.

Combined, its member organisations are responsible for annual transactions supporting over £600 billion of mortgage assets, support estate agents in bringing more than half of total listings to market, process in excess of 1 million search and environmental reports per annum, and together have three touchpoints on average for every property transaction.

109 days

According to Landmark Information Groups’ latest Property Transactions Report, the average time between sale agreed to exchange for purchases in 2024 was 109 days – a slight improvement from 115 days in 2023, but still 19% longer than in 2019 (92 days), and 65% longer than in 2007 (66 days)[2].

Its CEO Simon Brown says: “This is a pivotal moment for the property industry – a united response to a system that has, for too long, been too siloed, let down consumers and slowed economic progress.

“Landmark is proud to drive forward this change, bringing the right people, data and insights together across the entire transaction chain, as part of this industry-led initiative.#

“This Charter offers a realistic path to meaningful reform. We now urge Government and the wider market to act with us in transforming the experience for home movers across the UK.”

Exciting

Verona Frankish, CEO, Yopa says: “Buying or selling a home should be exciting, not exhausting. Yet too often, consumers face uncertainty, wasted time, and unnecessary costs because of outdated processes.

“At Yopa, we believe the industry has a responsibility to work together to change that.

“By embracing digital solutions, improving transparency, and aligning best practice, we can transform the moving experience and restore trust in the process and our industry.”

Source: The Negotiator