The Housing Forum has responded to the Government consultation on home buying and selling reform. We welcome the reforms overall – The sales process is currently too slow, and too uncertain, which is stressful for homeowners trying to buy or to sell a home. It is also a problem for housebuilders, whose customers are trying to sell a property in order to buy a newbuild homes.
Requiring more information upfront before a property is marketed and introducing legally binding contracts should help the housing market to operate more efficiently, helping people move to a new home that meets their needs, when they need it.
Further consideration is necessary on how the proposed reforms will be implemented across the newbuild sector, especially around off-plan sales, which do not appear to have been thought about.
Efforts to improve digitalisation in the property sector are welcome, but this too needs to be joined up with the increasing data on newbuild homes that is already being supplied by housebuilders to the first occupants. It is important that regulations around the second-hand market support the passing on of this information to subsequent owners.
You can read our response in full here: Home buying and selling reform – consultation response from The Housing Forum
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A Quality Home for All
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