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The government is planning to digitalise data shared during property sales in England and Wales to tackle delays in transactions and speed up the homebuying process.
Labour has announced a 12-week project to decide on the “design and implementation of agreed rules on data” so that it can easily be shared between conveyancers, lenders and other parties involved in a transaction.
The changes aim to modernise the “cumbersome” process by allowing information that is often paper-based or not machine-readable to be shared more easily.
The housing and planning minister, Matthew Pennycook, said: “We are streamlining the cumbersome homebuying process so that it is fit for the 21st century, helping homebuyers save money, gain time and reduce stress while also cutting the number of house sales that fall through.”
The move is part of Labour’s plans for housing which also including overhauling planning rules, building 1.5m homes and reforming leaseholds.
Legislation will be introduced next week to give leaseholders power over the way their service charges are spent.
When buying a home, conveyancing typically takes several weeks, but waiting for documents needed for property searches and other parts of the process can lead to delays.
The website Rightmove said it takes five months on average from an offer being accepted to moving into a property, and that “digitising” the property market is key to helping accelerate the process.
Rightmove’s chief executive, Johan Svanstrom, said the five months is in addition to the initial two months it usually takes to find a property and agree an offer.
Svanstrom added: “The current process also contributes to an average of more than one in five home sales falling through, and hopefully a better process can help reduce this as well.”
Related: Leasehold reforms face more delay due to Tory flaws, minister says
A “fully digitalised” homebuying and selling process would mean mortgage companies and surveyors can access the information they need immediately with identity checks only carried out once, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said.
Building control and highways information are among the documentation needed that is predominantly paper-based or not machine-readable.
A lack of protocol for accessing, sharing and verifying data that is available electronically also contributes to holdups, the ministry said.
The ministry will work with HM Land Registry (HMLR) and experts from the Digital Property Market Steering Group – a coalition of government and industry partners – on the 12-week project.