Understanding the conveyancing searches market

It’s good to see Government unveiling new plans this week to modernise the home buying and selling process, making “home buying fit for the 21st Century and giving much needed certainty to everyone involved in property transactions.”  

Over the years, we’ve seen a variety of initiatives introduced, each intended to bring efficiency to various parts of the market. Some have been more successful than others, and a few, including the National Land Information Service (NLIS), are still in place today.   

Established 24 years ago, NLIS is an example of a successful central and local Government initiative, created to support the conveyancing market for the benefit of data providers, conveyancing search providers, conveyancers and consumers. It has achieved this by ensuring a regulated, seamless and efficient transfer of information and requests between data providers and search companies.   

Today NLIS connects search companies to every local authority in England and Wales, as well as the Mining Remediation Authority and HM Land Registry. It remains the only regulated platform for Official Searches, returning 85% of LLC1 & CON29 Searches in 10 days or less.  

In recent months, Land Data, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, has been exploring ways in which NLIS can evolve to streamline and improve the Official Searches market, supporting stable property transactions for consumers. These broadly fall into two categories, the first being to update the existing technology, the second to provide a new framework with tools, standards and regulation. This framework could help conveyancing search providers and others, who may want components of data at different points in the transaction, to deliver their service effectively whilst providing market efficiency and consumer confidence. 

We are now at the stage where we need to understand the needs and perspectives of the searches market to inform our decision making, allowing us to deliver the right outcome, beneficial for all. Working alongside consultancies TPXimpact and Alpha Property Insight, with support from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), we will engage with every part of the conveyancing searches market to understand views, experiences and challenges. The research will involve a series of interviews, online workshops and surveys.  

Over the coming weeks we will be speaking to search providers, data providers including local authorities, conveyancers, professional trade bodies, technology providers and industry and government initiatives looking to improve the home buying and selling process. MHCLG is strongly encouraging the sector to participate in order to gather a rich and diverse range of views. 

If you have any questions about this discovery work and want to be part of it, please contact the Land Data team: info@land-data.org.uk. 

Photo by Trayan on Unsplash