Everyone agrees – from industry professionals to consumers and Government Ministers – that the home-buying and selling process must be modernised.
The question is, how do we deliver the change that’s needed and what part does data have to play?
Ministers have placed digitisation, common data standards and greater upfront transparency at the heart of their reforms. But policy direction alone will not resolve what practitioners experience every day – a transaction process slowed by fragmentation and limited transparency.
At the heart of Project 28 – an industry charter for faster, more certain property transactions – is a clear and practical answer: the industry needs secure, interoperable data repositories that connects the transaction chain and removes the blind spots that are slowing it down. Without shared visibility of progress and trusted, reusable data, reforms risk being incremental rather than transformational.
A FRAGMENTED SYSTEM
The urgency to implement this solution is clear. Landmark’s latest transaction milestone data found that the average time from conveyancer instruction to completion reached 123 days in 2025 – an 18% increase since 2019 and a 64% increase since 2007.
These are symptoms of a structurally fragmented system where information sits in silos and certainty arrives too late.
When an offer is agreed and a chain begins to form, each party progresses with their part of the transaction. However, momentum can stall due to a number of reasons: confirmation sits in another system, an update has not been shared, or a document has yet to be uploaded.
Milestones are reached but not always seen and that lack of shared visibility creates delay and uncertainty – the property data blind spot.
THE DEMAND FOR VISIBILITY
In a recent survey conducted by Landmark, transaction timescales were cited as a top three frustration by 42% of conveyancers, 40% of lenders and 32% of agents.
When asked what would make the biggest positive impact on productivity and business success, 33% of agents cited greater visibility of progress among their top three priorities. There is a clear demand for transparency across the transaction pipeline.
Estate agents, conveyancers and lenders all work within their own systems and processes. Information passes between them through emails, attachments and manual updates, meaning progress becomes reactive and not always visible in real time.
SHARED DATA INFRASTRUCTURE
A shared environment where all professionals can securely access accurate and verified key transaction data would transform how the transaction operates.
A live, milestone-based view of progress would mean professionals no longer need to chase updates or duplicate requests; instead, they could rely on verified information and act with certainty.
Crucially, the appetite for better-connected processes is not limited to professionals. Consumers are equally clear about what needs to change.
When selecting their top three factors that would improve the home moving experience, 47% cited better cross-stakeholder communication and 42% pointed to better technology to support communication.
Perhaps most telling is that 75% would pay their agent upfront for better data-sharing and 71% would do the same with their conveyancer.
FROM SILOS TO CERTAINTY
The market is signalling an eagerness for earlier, better-connected engagement and the demand is there for it.
Interoperable data repositories would allow trusted information to be captured once and reused appropriately, supported by audit trails and consistent data standards; ensuring every stakeholder operates from the same version of the truth.
It directly addresses what our research has consistently shown: that certainty still arrives too late in the transaction.
If we are serious about achieving a 28-day ambition from sale agreed to exchange, we cannot continue operating in silos.
Shared data is critical property market infrastructure that underpins confidence, supports professional standards and enables a property system capable of matching consumer expectations in 2026.
The direction of travel is clear and action is vital. A secure, interoperable data repository is how we end the property data blind spot and build a transaction process defined no longer by delay, but by certainty.
