ALL homes across the UK could be given their own “registration number” to help speed up sales.
Properties already have several different numbers associated with it such as a postcode, Land Registry title number or energy meter reference.
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Estate agents and property experts claim combining all the information held by different organisations such as the council, mortgage lenders and energy companies under a standardised reference number would make data more accessible, reduce delays in transactions and stop some sales collapsing.
Property website Rightmove has previously claimed that around 30% of sales fall-through each year and the figure was as high as 49.8 per cent during the first three months of 2018.
Nigel Walley, managing director of property company Chimni, which helps sellers create logbooks to share information on their home, told The Sun: “A lot of the reasons that sales collapse is because of missing data, a mortgage company may pull out if things aren’t clear.
“Clarifying this information would reduce the number of failed sales.
“There is a lot of different data in the property world and there are now efforts to tidy it up to create one overarching identity pack for a home.”
How to speed up your house sale
QUICK Move Now has provided tips on how to get a successful property sale.
Set the right price for your property
It can be tempting to get carried away with the asking price suggested by your estate agent, but it is important to be realistic.
Having a look at sold prices for similar properties in the area should give you a better view of what is achievable than the valuation of an estate agent who is trying to win your business. You can find sold house price data on online portals such as Zoopla and Rightmove
Choose your buyer wisely
Find out as much as you can about your prospective buyers’ situation so that you are aware of any potential issues that may come up throughout the course of the sale.
Pick the right estate agent
Your estate agent should be doing a lot of the background research for you, and should only be showing your property to serious buyers.
Your choice of estate agent can actually make or break your house sale, so make sure you do your research and consider any fees beforehand.
Stay in touch with your solicitor
Solicitors can come with high fees and they usually deal with numerous cases at the same time.
To make the most of your money – and if you’re keen for a quick and successful sale – schedule regular update calls to check on the progress of the sale and ensure you are aware of the next steps.
Keep the sale simple
Last but not least, the more simple you keep your sale, and the fewer parties involved, the quicker and more successful the sale is likely to be.
If you are able to put yourself in a so-called “chain-free” position, your chances of a successful property sale are a lot higher.
His company is one of more than 50 organisations, including estate agents and property trade bodies that have backed an open letter to Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick urging him to roll-out a single and standardised reference numbers for each property in the UK.
They want all the various data held on a home to come under a unique property reference numbers (UPRN), which is the system currently used by local authorities to identify properties.
The idea is that each property would have its own code, like a car registration or national insurance number, that would show information such as its address, the value of a home and how energy efficient it is.
It could then be accessed by mortgage lenders when considering loan offers to speed up applications, or by solicitors to make the conveyancing process faster.
Theresa Wallace, head of customer relations at estate agent Savills and chair of The Lettings Industry Council, said property searches by conveyancers could be “virtually instantaneous” with the right data.
She added: “An initial mortgage offer could also be produced quicker due to certain data sharing, subject to verification.”
The UPRN is one idea that has been proposed to the government by the home buying and selling group, which is an industry committee of property groups and estate agents setup by the ministry of housing.
Walley added: “We know the ministry of housing is keen on the property sector doing this and I suspect government will step in if it doesn’t happen naturally.”
The Ministry of Housing has been asked for comment.
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It comes as chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to reject calls to extend the Stamp Duty holiday despite warnings that sales may collapse.
Find out when the Stamp Duty holiday ends.
Check out our guide to buying your first home, including how much you can borrow and the help available.
Rishi Sunak announces temporary holiday on stamp duty on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland
