Conveyancing firms have increased their use of technology over the past two years but key parts of the property transaction remain heavily reliant on email and manual processes, new research reveals.
InfoTrack’s 2026 Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index gives the sector an average digital maturity score of 59.8%, up from 54.4% in 2024.
However, the research finds 70% of firms still share documents by email during the pre-completion stage, while 65% manage deadlines manually or through spreadsheets.
More than four in five – 81% – also rely on manual risk reviews or double-checking, leaving pre-completion with a digital maturity score of just 35.3%.
FRAGMENTED PROCESS
Digital adoption is considerably stronger during client onboarding.
Some 89% of firms use digital identity verification, 74% have a digital source-of-funds process and 68% complete transaction forms digitally.
But these systems are not always connected, with 71% still relying on phone, email or post for onboarding communications and 66% using manual calls to verify recipient bank details.
Only 16% use a system capable of sending and receiving documents and automatically saving them back to the firm’s case management system.
Half of firms continue to manage enquiries through post or email and just 15% use a shared workspace connecting both sides of a transaction.
Meanwhile, 82% still log directly into lender panel platforms to upload documents and updates.
DIGITAL PROGRESS
There are signs of greater automation elsewhere in the conveyancing process.
Integrated AP1 submissions have increased from 37% of firms in 2024 to 51% this year, while integrated Stamp Duty Land Tax submissions have risen from 40% to 44%.
Mid-sized firms have also overtaken smaller practices among the industry’s most digitally mature businesses.
Firms employing between 26 and 199 people now account for two-thirds of the highest-performing group. In 2024, practices employing between one and 25 people made up more than half of the leading cohort.
Bell Lamb & Joynson tops the Index for a second consecutive edition with a digital maturity score of 94.5%, followed by Thomas Flavell & Sons at 88.3% and The Partnership at 82.1%.
TWO-SPEED MARKET
Sam Jordan (main picture), Chief Operating Officer at InfoTrack UK, says the challenge is increasingly about embedding technology consistently across businesses rather than simply having access to it.
Richard Wollacott from Knights says: “The profession is moving at two very different speeds. Some firms are embedding technology and AI into their everyday processes, while many others are still relying on paper files and paper identification.
“Those firms will increasingly be overtaken by businesses that can onboard a client, issue a contract pack or review a lease and title in seconds.”
