Digital home buying: transforming the UK home buying process

Every year, around half of our customers go through a key life moment; whether it’s getting married, buying a car or buying a home, those big emotional milestones can have a huge and brilliant impact on our lives. And each year, millions of customers will turn to us to help them navigate some of those decisions. It’s a privilege, and creates millions of moments where we can deliver an experience, or meet an expectation, that really matters.   

Take buying a home. Whether it’s taking our first steps onto the housing ladder, or picking up the keys for our forever home – it’s should be an exciting, joyous moment. But there’s no getting away from the fact that, in too many cases, the reality of buying a home is uncertain, complex and stressful.  

In England and Wales, buying a home typically takes around five months from offer to completion, and one in three transactions fall through. That leaves buyers and sellers not just out of pocket, but frustrated, exhausted and back to square one. And that’s not just a sucker punch for those buy or selling a home, but it has a huge impact on a housing market that that sits at the heart of the UK economy. 

We know this needs fixing. But how do we do it?

Why the current system fails buyers and sellers 

Anyone who has bought a home will be familiar with the pain points in the process. When looking at how we can remove friction for our customers there are four key areas we think we need to focus on: 

• The process is fragmented. Buyers, sellers, estate agents, mortgage lenders, brokers and conveyancers all hold pieces of the puzzle, but often those pieces don’t connect. Information is requested repeatedly, manually checked and re‑entered into different systems, creating duplication, delay and risk. 
• Critical information arrives far too late. Searches, title issues and source‑of‑funds checks often surface only after an offer has been accepted, when emotions are high and costs have already been incurred. Late surprises are one of the biggest drivers of collapsed transactions, and one of the most avoidable. 
• Transparency is poor. Buyers and sellers are frequently left without clear sight of what has been done, what comes next, or who is responsible for moving things forward. Months can pass with long periods of silence, even though large sums of money are at stake. 
• The process remains overly manual. Paper documents, unstructured emails and disconnected case management systems still sit at the heart of transactions that underpin the wider housing market and economy. 

These issues don’t just create frustration; they often result in duplicated effort and avoidable delays, with critical problems emerging too late.  

However, the industry working together and sharing trusted digital information could help to tackle all four of these key challenges.

Beyond consultation: delivering real reform 

We’re not alone in recognising the need for change. In late 2025, the Government launched a consultation on reforming the home buying and selling process in the UK, saying it is too slow, fragmented and uncertain. Long transaction times and high fall‑through rates cause real consumer harm and undermines confidence in the housing market. The direction of travel is right: better information earlier, stronger standards across the market and increased use of digital tools. 

But reform will only deliver meaningful change if it goes beyond layering new requirements onto old foundations. 

A modern home buying market requires a connected digital infrastructure – one that enables information  to be captured once, verified properly and reused securely, with customer consent, throughout the journey. Customers receive the same level of digital connectivity and transparency in other industries – and home buying should be no different.