Home-buying and selling reform: what it means for building engineers

The UK government has launched a major consultation on home buying and selling reform, which seeks views from across the property and built-environment sectors. 

The consultation, which opened last month (6 October) and runs until 29 December 2025, sets out a vision to modernise the home-buying and selling process, highlighting the current system’s weaknesses, which include:

• the average transaction takes 120 days from offer to completion, and around one in three deals fall through 
• a lack of upfront information about property condition, leasehold or freehold status, and other risks leads to delays, aborted sales and higher costs; and 
• digital tools and data standards are under-used, meaning many parts of the process remain paper-based, fragmented and slow. 

The main proposals include the following strands:

• upfront property information: Sellers (or their agents) may be required to provide detailed information early in the process – condition, planning history, leasehold costs, chain-status
• professionalising agents: Introducing mandatory qualifications, a Code of Practice for estate/letting/managing agents, and greater transparency of performance
• digitalisation: use of digital property logbooks, digital identity verification, standardised data-sharing and interoperable systems for conveyancers, lenders and surveyors
• binding contracts earlier: the idea of shifting from non-binding offers to more certainty earlier in the chain to reduce collapse risk; and
• consumer education and transparency: more clarity for buyers and sellers, better information about roles/professional standards, and stronger consumer protection.

For building engineers, this consultation signals potential change ahead in how property transactions are managed – with more emphasis on early technical disclosure, digital data flows, standardised information and professional accountability. 

Subject to its outcome, the government will publish a roadmap setting out how it will transform home buying and selling over the course of this Parliament. Implementation is likely to be phased – digital pilots, data-standard implementation and any change in professional regulation. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) emphasises that previous attempts failed and this time the reforms aim to be "practical, enforceable, and built to last".

View the consultation document here.