In June 2026, the UK Government published the Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, setting out a series of proposals designed to significantly reshape how residential property transactions work in England and Wales. It is being described as one of the most far-reaching reforms to the home buying process in a generation. While the roadmap sets the direction of travel, the reforms will be introduced over time rather than taking effect immediately.
At its core, the roadmap focuses on three things: reducing delays, improving transparency, and cutting the high number of failed transactions that continue to define the UK housing market. On paper, these changes are about efficiency. In practice, they represent something more fundamental – a shift in when information is provided, who is responsible for it, and how much certainty buyers and sellers can realistically expect before committing to a property.
At Arnold & Baldwin, we have long supported the principle that better information leads to better decisions, and better decisions ultimately reduce fall-throughs, wasted costs and the friction that has characterised our country’s housing market for decades.
What is the Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap?
The Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap 2026 is a Government-led programme aimed at modernising the property transaction process in England and Wales. It responds to long-standing issues in the market that most people working in the industry will recognise immediately, including slow transaction times, high fall-through rates, and a lack of reliable information at the point key decisions are made.
The average home purchase currently takes around 120 days to complete, with one in three agreed sales falling through before reaching completion. These failures are not just inconvenient; they are expensive, with hundreds of millions of pounds lost each year in aborted transactions and wider economic inefficiency. The Government’s argument is that much of this is avoidable and is driven by information being discovered too late in the process, after buyers and sellers have already committed significant time and money.
The roadmap therefore seeks to move critical information earlier in the transaction, standardise how it is presented, and increase the use of digital systems to reduce duplication and delay.
Why the Government is Changing the Home Buying and Selling System?
The key issue the reforms are trying to address is uncertainty. Under the current system, buyers often proceed through legal work and mortgage applications before they have full visibility of a property’s condition or legal complexity. Sellers, meanwhile, can progress deep into a transaction only for issues to emerge late in the process, resulting in renegotiation or collapse. This creates a system where high costs are incurred before there is genuine certainty that the transaction will complete. It also creates inefficiency in chains, where one failed link can unravel multiple connected sales.
The Government’s view is that this uncertainty is systematic rather than accidental, and that it can be reduced by changing the point at which key information is made available. The reforms are therefore designed to make the process more front-loaded, more transparent and standardised, with less reliance on the late-stage discovery of potential issues.
What are Property Sales Packs?
One of the most significant proposals is the introduction of mandatory upfront property information, referred to as ‘sales packs’. These would need to be prepared by the seller before a property is listed for sale by an agent, and would form the foundation of the information available to buyers from the outset.
Sales packs are expected to include property searches, legal and title information, standardised property data, and a professionally prepared property condition report. Instead of buyers discovering key issues after an offer has been accepted, much of this information will be available upfront, before the property even reaches the market.
This shifts responsibility earlier in the process and effectively raises the baseline level of preparation required to sell a home. It also introduces a new dynamic into the market. If selling requires more upfront cost and preparation, it is likely to reduce speculative listings and increase the proportion of sellers who are genuinely committed to moving.
What This Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap Means for Buyers and Sellers
For buyers, the most immediate change is improved visibility earlier in the process. In theory, this reduces the risk of unpleasant surprises later on and allows more informed decision-making before committing to an offer. It also means that when a buyer does proceed, they are doing so with a higher level of confidence in the information they have been given.
For sellers, the process becomes more structured at the outset. There will be additional cost and preparation required before listing a property, particularly in relation to condition reporting and documentation. However, the trade-off is a system that should, in principle, reduce fall-through risk and late-stage renegotiation.
This matters because the cost of a failed transaction is not just financial; it also represents wasted time, lost opportunities and, in many cases, significant stress for both parties. A system that reduces that risk has clear benefits, even if it requires more preparation upfront.
What The Reforms Mean for Estate Agents and Surveyors
Although buyers and sellers will feel this most directly, the impact runs through the entire transaction chain. Estate agents are likely to become central to ensuring that the required upfront information is in place before a property can be marketed. This increases both responsibility and reliance on accurate, consistent property data at the point of listing. It also means a closer working relationship with surveyors, particularly where condition information is concerned.
Surveyors will be expected to move further upstream in the process. Instead of being instructed only after an offer is accepted, their input becomes part of the pre-listing phase through condition reporting and structured property assessment.
However, there are still important unanswered questions. It is not yet clear how upfront condition reports will align with existing RICS survey products, or how discrepancies between an initial seller-commissioned report and a later buyer-commissioned survey will be handled. These issues will be critical in determining how the reforms function in practice, particularly around trust, liability and consistency.
Impact of the Home Buying and Selling Reforms to The Property Market
Over time, these reforms are likely to influence how the housing market behaves. If upfront preparation becomes mandatory, it may discourage casual or speculative listings where sellers are not fully committed to moving. That could reduce the overall number of properties coming to market at any given time, at least in the short term, while increasing the quality and seriousness of listings that do proceed.
At the same time, improved information flow should reduce the rate of failed transactions, which has been a persistent inefficiency in the English and Welsh housing system for many years. Fewer fall-throughs mean fewer broken chains, which should improve overall market stability and reduce wasted transactional effort.
The broader direction of travel is towards a more data-led housing system, where decisions are based on verified information earlier in the process rather than assumptions that are only tested once significant time and money have already been committed.
The Real Test Will be How the Reforms are Implemented
At Arnold and Baldwin, we embrace the Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap as a positive step for the industry. It aligns closely with a principle that has always underpinned our work, that informed decisions lead to better outcomes in property transactions. As surveying becomes more embedded at the beginning of the process rather than the end, the importance of independence, clarity and professional standards only increases. The role of the surveyor does not diminish under these reforms; it becomes more central and more directly connected to how transactions progress from the outset.
However, the success of these changes will come down to implementation rather than intent. The structure of condition reports, the consistency of standards, and how different forms of property information are interpreted and relied upon will determine whether this delivers a smoother system or simply a more front-loaded version of the same complexity.
For buyers and sellers, the key shift is straightforward. Decisions will be made earlier, with more information available upfront and less tolerance for uncertainty later in the process. For the industry, the challenge is execution. Getting the framework right, maintaining trust in the information provided, and ensuring standards remain consistent across the board.
This is where policy becomes practice, and in property that distinction is what defines whether change works or not. For those navigating this landmark shift, Arnold & Baldwin continues to provide clear, independent and professional surveying advice to help buyers, sellers and partners make informed decisions with confidence as the market changes around them.
By Nathaneal Watchorn
Director of Arnold and Baldwin
