Government reform on homebuying

Government proposals for mandatory seller-paid condition surveys could increase costs, cause delays, and repeat past failures, raising concerns for home buyers and sellers alike.

The government has recently closed a consultation on proposed reforms to the home-buying process, and these proposals have the potential to affect everyone looking to buy or sell a property. One of the key ideas being explored is a requirement for sellers to commission and pay for a condition survey before their home can be marketed.

While this may be presented as a way to improve transparency for buyers, it raises a number of important concerns from a consumer perspective. The most immediate impact would be higher upfront costs for sellers, which are likely to be passed on to buyers through higher asking prices. At a time when affordability is already stretched, this could make moving home even more expensive.

There are also practical issues. The surveying sector does not currently have enough qualified professionals to cope with the significant increase in workload such a policy would create. This could result in delays, reduced choice, and higher fees, ultimately slowing down the home-buying process rather than improving it.

Consumers should also be aware that a similar scheme was introduced when Labour was last in government, but it failed to achieve its aims and was eventually cancelled by the Conservatives. That experience highlights the risk of repeating past mistakes instead of addressing the root causes of delays and fall-throughs in property transactions.

Further insight into these concerns can be found in the responses from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA), including the RPSA’s response to the RICS submission.

RPSA Response – https://www.rpsa.org.uk/Blog?bg=93
RICS Response – https://www.rpsa.org.uk/News?bg=100
YouTube RPSA response – https://youtu.be/ezdVAuWBnvQ