The key to unlocking the UK’s digital housing market By James Bawa
A lot has changed since the Victorian era. We have the internet, international flight routes and smart phones which contain almost every detail of our lives. Yet when it comes to buying a house, there’s one part of the process that would still be recognised by the Victorians. While most parts of the home buying and selling process have been digitalised, the settlement process still relies on the transportation of physical documents between offices; a step which causes delays, friction and confusion to many purchasing a home. The pandemic has underlined the impact that this has on homebuyers and the lack of resilience in the system. The Times reported that the average transaction time from point of sale to completion increased
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from 12 weeks to 16-18 weeks in September 2020. With offices closed across the country, that seemingly simple step has faced reduced capacity and operational challenges which have stopped many from progressing their home buying journey. A simple change – digitisation – would remove these barriers and open the door to a smoother property settlement system. As the UK
