CILEX and CRL join new Digital Property Market Steering Group
CILEX and CILEx Regulation (CRL) are among key government and industry partners named as members of the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) with the aim of helping the property market work better for all.
The group, announced in August, plans to accelerate the adoption of digital technology, while ensuring it is transparent, secure and consumer friendly, through collaboration and innovation across the sector.
The DPMSG’s view is that, if information about properties was available immediately to all concerned and everything was handled digitally, “it could speed up the property market and reduce stress and the risk of failed transactions”.
It is over 20 years since the Land Registration Act 2002 was introduced with the hope that ‘e-conveyancing’, which it enabled in law, would deliver these kinds of benefits. According to the DPMSG, there has been some progress since then “but the job of modernising the process has proved more challenging than envisaged and one that no single institution can achieve on its own”.
The group brings together representation from key areas of the sector where there is likely to be the greatest potential for accelerated digital adoption. This includes legal property professionals, surveyors, conveyancers, lenders and estate agents. Founding members working alongside CILEX include the Law Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and HM Land Registry.
The aim is that everyone involved in buying, leasing and selling land and property can experience “a secure and modern market that is transparent, customer-friendly and business-friendly at all stages”. Through collaboration, innovation and a focus on emerging digital technologies, the group said it wanted to “build on existing progress across the home-buying and selling system to get a better result for the customer: simpler, faster, more certain and less stressful”.
The DPMSG held a joint government and industry launch event in September, bringing together leaders and influencers from across the sector to set a clear direction for a secure and modern land and property market, exploring the barriers to change and demonstrating joint leadership and commitment among participants to take forward its programme of transformation.
Read more about the DPMSG and the perspective of CILEX vice-president and conveyancer Yanthe Richardson in CILEX Journal’s feature on digital conveyancing published in this edition.