Home-Buying Reform: Welcome Progress, But Buyers Still Need to Be Mortgage-Ready

AMI Chief Executive Stephanie Charman emphasises the need for buyers to be mortgage-ready, in this article written for Moneyfacts magazine...

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Home-Buying Reform: Welcome Progress, But Buyers Still Need to Be Mortgage-Ready

AMI Chief Executive Stephanie Charman emphasises the need for buyers to be mortgage-ready, in this article written for Moneyfacts magazine...

The Financial Ombudsman Service confirms new approach to interest awards from January 2026

The Financial Ombudsman Service has published its final guidance on how it will apply interest to compensation awards from 1 January 2026

Your October ’25 update from AMI Chief Executive Stephanie Charman

As we reach the October has been a busy month for AMI, with much more still to come in November for the team; AMI Chief Executive Stephanie Charman updates us...

Your October 2025 industry update

AMI's October 2025 industry update; what's new across the mortgage & protection industries this month...

Nominate Now: 30 Under 30 Stars!

Spotlight future leaders with 30 Under 30, a fantastic initiative from Financial Reporter and Working in Mortgages - make your nominations now...

Home-Buying Reform: Welcome Progress, But Buyers Still Need to Be Mortgage-Ready

AMI Chief Executive Stephanie Charman emphasises the need for buyers to be mortgage-ready, in this article written for Moneyfacts magazine...

The government’s latest Home Buying and Selling Reform consultation has certainly got the industry talking. On paper, it promises everything the sector has been asking for. A faster, fairer, and more transparent property market where information flows freely and fall-through transactions are reduced.


While these reforms are absolutely necessary, there is a danger that we focus too heavily on the process and not enough on the people moving through it. No amount of digital transformation will matter if buyers are not mortgage-ready and sellers are not fully sale-ready. As every mortgage adviser knows, the property market is fundamentally about people.

Digitisation and procedural improvements alone cannot solve the system’s problems unless buyers are financially aware and prepared before they begin house-hunting. Getting a property “sale-ready” is only half the equation; ensuring buyers are mortgage-ready is where real transformation happens.

Before we go further, let’s start with the facts—why reform is needed. In 2025, the average transaction takes around 120 days from the acceptance of an offer to completion. When the additional weeks or even months spent searching for a suitable property or waiting for the right buyer are factored in, the total journey can easily stretch to five or six months. Despite the growing adoption of digital tools and online platforms, these timelines have continued to get longer, which highlights that digitisation isn’t the only solution.

Compounding the issue, roughly one in three property transactions still fall through before completion, equating to more than 290,000 failed sales each year. This costs homemovers over £1 billion annually, covering wasted surveys, searches, legal fees, and mortgage applications that never reach fruition.

Beyond the financial cost, moving home is emotionally taxing and often ranked as the third most stressful life event after bereavement and divorce, underlining the value of the guidance and support advisers provide. The government’s recent consultation rightly identifies that this is unsustainable, and reform isn’t just desirable but essential.

The Home Buying and Selling Reform consultation seeks to address these inefficiencies by improving transparency and streamlining the legal process. Key proposals include requiring sellers to provide material information upfront, such as property condition, tenure details, and local searches, while encouraging digital identity verification and e-signatures to reduce paperwork delays. Establishing common data standards across estate agents, conveyancers, and lenders, along with exploring binding commitments earlier in the process, aims to reduce last-minute withdrawals. Pilots and phased implementation are planned to provide a structured roadmap for change.

There’s much to be supportive of. Having more information available upfront should help buyers make more informed decisions. Digital tools should streamline some of the administrative friction that currently drags and slows the process.

As expected, there are also challenges and potential unintended consequences.
Major reforms often create uncertainty. Some buyers may delay their plans to see how new rules unfold, while others may accelerate transactions to complete before changes take effect.

Sellers might postpone listings until they have a clearer understanding of future requirements. And then there’s the question of speculative buyers—those who put their properties on the market to ‘test the water’. If the process comes with upfront costs and binding obligations earlier, might these buyers disappear altogether?

In many ways, that’s positive; it could make the system more stable and reduce the number of failed transactions. However, in the short term, it may also lead to fewer active buyers and a slowdown in housing transactions. That would run counter to the Government’s wider growth ambitions, given that housing activity remains a critical driver of the UK economy.

This is why the sector needs clarity and a clear structured roadmap. Many changes will take years to implement, and mortgage advisers, estate agents, and conveyancers need to know what is changing, when, and how, so they can prepare consumers appropriately. Without clear guidance, uncertainty may do as much harm as the issues the reforms seek to address.

But while we wait for large-scale reform, it’s important to recognise that meaningful change is already happening across the conveyancing ecosystem. From the growing use of digital ID checks and open property data standards to improved communication platforms between agents, conveyancers, and lenders, parts of the process are quietly becoming more efficient.

There are also smaller, practical steps every firm and adviser can take now, encouraging clients to prepare key documents earlier, promoting upfront information sharing, and ensuring buyers are mortgage-ready before viewing properties. These incremental improvements may not make headlines, but collectively they can make a significant difference. We shouldn’t sit back and wait for reform to arrive; progress is already possible, and the industry should build on the momentum that’s emerging today.

The consultation rightly focuses on ensuring properties are “sale-ready,” but that is only half the picture. Transactions can fail just as easily when buyers are unprepared, making offers without confirming affordability or having a mortgage offer in place. This is where the expertise of mortgage advisers is crucial.

Ideally, consumers would approach the market fully informed, understanding exactly how much they can borrow, the costs involved, including stamp duty and conveyancing fees, and obtaining a decision in principle. In reality, many start browsing property portals before discussing affordability, risking falling in love with a property and only then beginning the mortgage process.

For reform to be truly effective, a cultural shift is needed, where seeking mortgage advice early becomes the norm rather than an afterthought.

The consultation presents a major opportunity for mortgage advisers to take a more proactive role in the buying journey.

By positioning themselves as the first point of contact, advisers can help consumers enter the market better prepared, reducing the risk of fall-throughs, enabling faster decision-making, and boosting confidence when the right property appears. For advisers, this translates into fewer aborted applications, smoother completions, and more satisfied consumers.

Reform of the home-buying process has been promised many times before. Many of us will remember Home Information Packs in the 2000s, the industry has seen plenty of pilots that never took off. This time could be different if the ambition is matched with delivery.

Success will depend on more than new technology or regulations; it relies on the sector working together. The continued and tireless work of organisations such as the Open Property Data Association and the Home Buying and Selling Council in driving standards, sharing best practice, and coordinating across stakeholders will be critical in turning reform from aspiration into reality.

The future outlook is positive.

Imagine a housing market where sellers list homes with complete, accurate information, and buyers arrive with mortgage approval already in place. Customers, advisers, lenders, and conveyancers share data seamlessly. Transactions take weeks, not months, and transaction fall-throughs are the exception, not the rule.

These government reforms are a positive step. A faster, more transparent system benefits everyone, buyers, sellers, lenders, and intermediaries. But the success of the reform will ultimately depend on whether both sides of the market are ready at the same time.

If sellers are better prepared but buyers are not, fall-throughs will continue. If buyers are mortgage-ready but seller data is missing, delays will persist. The real breakthrough will come when both halves align: when every property is listed with complete information, and every buyer arrives with their mortgage in place.

That’s the home-buying utopia and mortgage advisers are central to making it happen.

© 2025 Association of Mortgage Intermediaries Limited.

AMI is the trading name of The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries Limited which is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales under the Companies Acts with number 7982341. Our registered address is Celixir House, Stratford Business & Technology Park, Innovation Way, Banbury Road, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7GZ.

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