A short-term research project aims to discover what buyers think should be done to improve home-buying in the UK.

The Open Property Data Association has issued a survey through over 30 of its member firms including Atom bank, Inventory Base, and Kotini to cover thousands of existing and potential homebuyers. The results will form vital evidence for OPDA’s campaign to transform and digitise the homebuying process.

The deadline for responses is imminent – Monday September 30. The survey takes less than 15 minutes, is open to all customers, and can be completed anonymously.

OPDA wants to find out not only what home-buyers and sellers feel about the process but how they think it should be improved. The association is particularly interested in how much buyers and sellers know about digital property information and how comfortable they would be using and sharing data.

The survey is targeted at customers who have transacted on a property over the past year or two and those who aspire to home ownership. OPDA is aiming to reach as many homebuyers as possible through members who include several of the country’s largest lenders. The research launch comes shortly after NatWest Group and HSBC joined OPDA. Nationwide announced its membership in July and Lloyds Banking Group in March.

Results and analysis will feed into a white paper that OPDA will publish and present to Government and other key stakeholders later this year.

Much of the buying process still remains reliant on paper, duplication, multiple signatures, and manual checks. Consequently, it is taking an average of 22 weeks for customers to reach completion on their home purchase. OPDA claims that by contrast, its data standards for digital property packs have seen time reduced from mortgage offer and purchase accepted to exchange within 15 days. 

Maria Harris, chair of OPDA, says: “We’ve all heard examples of how bad the torturous and archaic home-buying experience is in this country. But we’re taking our research further by asking consumers not only what they think about the experience, but also how they feel it could be improved and about their attitudes to digital property information. We’d love the industry to share the survey link with their own customers to generate the biggest consumer voice possible.”