Government Introduces Home Buying Reforms: How It Affects Buyers, Sellers and Agents

Three big changes are now in force or imminent.

• ●Upfront information packs: sellers are required to gather a standardised set of property information before they go to market, not after an offer has been accepted.
• ●Digital identity verification: regulated property professionals must now accept government endorsed digital identity checks, replacing paper passports and certified copies.
• ●Faster local authority searches: most English councils have moved to digital land charge registers, cutting average search return time from twenty working days to seven.

The Buyer's Material Information rules require estate agents to publish core property facts at the point of listing, including tenure, council tax band, EPC rating, and any known structural issues. The voluntary Property Pack format (sometimes called the BASPI, Buyer and Seller Property Information) goes further. It bundles the title, searches, planning history, and TA6 form into one document that the seller's solicitor prepares before any offer is accepted. A buyer's solicitor can review the entire pack within a week, rather than waiting four to six weeks for it to arrive after instruction.

The result for the average transaction is two to three weeks shaved off the front end. For chain transactions, the saving compounds because every party in the chain is working from a complete pack on day one.

The government's Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) is now the accepted standard for identity checks across property transactions. Customers can verify their identity through any DIATF certified provider, including Credas, Yoti, and OneID, using a phone in around ten minutes. Solicitors can rely on those checks without needing to repeat the work, which removes the duplicate identity verification that used to slow down the start of every case.

For buyers and sellers, the practical change is no more taking time off work to visit a solicitor with a passport. For estate agents, it means clients can be ready to instruct the moment an offer is accepted.

Three practical impacts on agencies.

• ●Listings now require more upfront work. A property cannot legally go on the market without core material information published. This adds time at the listing stage but pulls time out of the back end.
• ●Faster client onboarding. Digital identity means a buyer can be verified and ready to instruct on the same day as the offer.
• ●Lower fall through rate. The official government impact assessment estimates upfront packs will reduce post offer fall throughs by around thirteen percent. The Home Buying and Selling Group, which advised on the reforms, expects the longer term impact could be higher once digital chains become standard.

Buyers benefit from clearer information up front and a faster overall timeline. The average residential purchase, which has historically run twelve to fourteen weeks, is expected to settle at nine to eleven weeks under the new framework. First time buyers benefit most, because they tend to be the least informed party going in and the most surprised by hidden issues that surface late.

Sellers carry more upfront work but get a better outcome. Properties marketed with a full pack tend to attract more serious offers, sell closer to asking, and complete faster. The trade off is that the seller's solicitor is engaged earlier, so the legal fee timing shifts from post offer to pre listing. Most panel firms have absorbed this rather than charging more.

Our model already operated this way before the reforms required it. We prepare every client's case before any solicitor is instructed, using Credas for digital identity and our admin team to scope searches and gather property information ahead of time. The reforms move the rest of the market towards what we have always done, which is good news for everyone moving home.

If you are buying, ask the estate agent for the full upfront pack before viewing. If you are selling, instruct a solicitor at point of listing so the pack is ready. If you are an estate agent, make sure your compliance officer has signed off on the new Material Information requirements, because failing to publish core facts is now an enforcement issue at Trading Standards level.

The reforms are not perfect and the pace of rollout has varied by region, but the direction is right. Property transactions in 2026 will be faster, more transparent, and less stressful than they were two years ago.