In a major shake-up of England and Wales’ property market, the UK government has unveiled proposals to overhaul the slow, fragile house-buying process. Under the changes being mooted, home sellers would be obliged to supply key property information upfront, binding contracts could become the norm, and digital tools would be pushed much more aggressively to reduce delay, uncertainty and deal failures.
As one passage in the original BBC report notes:
“There has long been frustration in England and Wales over the length and jeopardy of the house-buying process for buyers and sellers, such as slow paperwork, ‘gazumping’ — when successful buyers are outbid at the last minute — and broken chains. Typically in England it takes about six months.”
That stark sentence captures the core grievance: six months is the rough average time it takes to go from offer to completion, and all along the way there is risk that the deal falls through or is re-negotiated. Not to mention the time it normally takes even to get to receiving an acceptable offer.
And of course, more complicated sales – like ex rentals with tenants in situ or even vacant ex-rentals in need of sprucing up – are likely to take significantly longer!
What the reforms propose
Some of the headline measures include:
- Upfront disclosure by sellers — Sellers would have to provide detailed information when the property is first marketed, covering structural condition, leasehold and service charges, and any legal encumbrances, so buyers know what they’re signing up to from day one.
- Binding pre-contracts — The government is considering shifting to legally binding commitments earlier in the process, to stop buyers or sellers trying to renegotiate the sales price or withdraw from the sale at the last minute.
- Reduced transaction time — Ministers estimate the changes could cut at least four weeks off current timelines – and more for more complicated sales – making the process faster and more certain.
- Sharper liability for agents and conveyancers — Performance transparency and stricter codes of conduct for estate agents and conveyancers are on the table, to reduce backlogs, delays and hidden costs.
- Digital modernization — The proposals push for greater use of digital identification, online document exchange, and streamlining of checks, which could eliminate cumbersome paperwork bottlenecks.
If these plans take effect, the government claims failed transactions could drop sharply from the current rate of around one in three to as low as one in seven, according to some estimates.
Good news for anyone wanting to buy or sell property in England and Wales
For prospective buyers, the reforms promise a clearer, less risky pathway: fewer surprises, earlier certainty, and lower risk that your dream purchase could be undone at the last moment.
For sellers, the need to carry out due diligence and supply essential data early should reduce time on market, cut wasted effort on failed chains, and smooth the path to a solid, secured sale.
In short, this is a win for consumers across the property chain — one that could finally align the UK process more closely with more efficient markets in other countries including Scotland.
The bad news is buyers and sellers using high street agents still have a long wait for these plans to be defined by the government and implemented across high estate agencies as standard.
National Residential and Landlord Sales Agency: ahead of the curve since 2006
At National Residential / Landlord Sales Agency, we’ve spent the past 19 years+ building our services with precisely these issues in mind.
What began as National Residential, providing an option for private home owners and landlords in need of a fast sale at a fair trade price, quickly became a favourite option for home owners and landlords who simply want an easy sale so they can plan ahead with more certainty and leave it to us to make sure sales complete.
Landlord Sales Agency evolved from National Residential as more and more landlords started coming to us to sell multiple properties at the same time without having to wait for tenants to vacate their properties or having to take them to court or worry about all the red tape surrounding tenants rights.
Unlike many high street agents, we have already refined our processes to ensure full compliance with tenants rights, to reduce uncertainty, to accelerate transactions and protect both buyers and sellers from last-minute collapse:
- We routinely collect comprehensive property data — condition, compliance, leasehold obligations — early in the sales cycle, so buyers are well informed from the start.
- We use a streamlined internal pipeline with digital document exchange, so delays from paperwork mishaps are minimised.
- Our contractual framework has always aimed to lock in serious buyers and reduce fall-throughs.
- We adopt a client-first approach, with full transparency and accountability, contrasting with many agents whose incentives often lean toward maximising listings over closing deals.
In other words, we are years ahead of the recommendations and already practising many of the principles the government is endorsing — it’s part of what makes us different from traditional high street agents.
The other part is in our application – unlike high street agents who pass any problems back to sellers to sort out; we project manage the entire sale from start to finish and we make it our job to ensure agreed sales complete by solving any problems the sale can throw at us.
The Value of Speed & Certainty In Challenging Circumstances
For landlords, particularly those operating in England’s private rented sector, selling quickly can mean avoiding mounting costs and regulatory changes.
Of course, the extra time, expertise and resources we invest to ensure a fast, reliable completion does come at a cost — as with any premium service.
We work hard to secure the best possible price by marketing to both chain-free owner-occupiers who are happy to pay full market value and to investors looking for properties at trade prices. The resulting ‘bidding’ wars ensure we get the best price possible for a fast, reliable sale and sellers normally walk away with 85 – 90% of high street valuations with no other fees or costs to pay.
We think that’s a small price for sellers to pay for the additional time and effort it takes us to deliver a premium service that gives sellers the option to sell with tenants in situ and includes the optional use of independent panel solicitors who prioritise our clients, saving sellers up to £720 inc VAT on legal fees.
Consider the money you won’t pay on legal fees, court/bailiff costs, agency fees, mortgage payments (if applicable), insurance, maintenance costs, and council tax while your properties sit empty waiting for a sale to complete and the cost of a fast, reliable sale starts looking a lot more like 3 – 5% – a veritable bargain price to sell complicated or tenanted properties in one swift sale!
So, if you don’t want to wait years for the market to catch up, start the conversation below by letting us know what properties you want to sell. We will provide a written online estimate of the sales price we believe we can achieve, based based on recent sales of similar properties in your area and the amount of additional work we anticipate we will need to do to ensure your sale completes for the best price possible.
If you are happy with the estimate, we will arrange for a local agent to inspect your property so that we can confirm the sales price you are happy to accept before we enter into an official agreement. You will not be under any obligation to use our services, we will not try to pressurise you into to using our services and we will not inflate our offer to try to win your custom.
We will simply tell you what we can achieve and let the facts speak for themselves so that you can decide whether you want to pay a little bit more for a fast, reliable sale with no last minute demands/negotiations or whether you prefer to wait for a slower, more risky traditional sale, which the government believes is in need of significant overhaul.