Ministers are attempting to cut the time it takes to buy a home by four weeks under new proposals aimed at overhauling the housebuying process.
The UK government will also consult on plans to shift costs from buyers to sellers, including compelling sellers and estate agents to provide buyers with vital information – such as the condition of the home and the scale of any leasehold costs – upfront.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the proposals were aimed to help “end nasty surprises which result in last-minute collapses”, with the department estimating that first-time buyers will save “£710 on average” when buying a home.
The initiative began when the department was being run by the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who resigned last month over a stamp duty row and who pledged to streamline the housebuying process in February.
The new housing secretary, Steve Reed, said: “Buying a home should be a dream, not a nightmare. Our reforms will fix the broken system so hardworking people can focus on the next chapter of their lives.
“Through our ‘plan for change’, we are putting more money back into working people’s pockets and making a simple dream a simple reality.”
The government did not outline how it might prevent sellers passing any freshly inflated costs back on to first time buyers through higher house prices.
The consultation process will cover the whole of the UK – even though the process of buying a home differs significantly depending on which nation the property is located in.
For example, in England and Wales, there is no legal requirement to obtain a survey of a property before you buy it – although many buyers choose to commission one. In Scotland, however, the seller must provide a “home report” before they can put their property on the market – unless the property is a new-build home.
The consultation process will also examine providing an option for buyers and sellers to sign binding contracts “to stop people walking away from agreements after buyers painstakingly spend months in negotiations”.
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The government said this will help halve the number of failed transactions, so “precious time and money don’t go to waste, as well as avoid heartbreak and stress for hard-working people looking for the perfect home”.
Again, however, the systems vary across the UK. A property purchase is legally binding in England once contracts are exchanged, which can take more than six weeks. In Scotland, this process typically works much more quickly.
