New partnership aims to simplify home buying and selling process

Skipton Building Society is expanding its role in NPTN (National Property Transaction Network) by LMS – connecting mortgage and estate agency expertise from across Skipton Group with LMS’s NPTN infrastructure to help make buying and selling a home simpler, more connected and transparent, it says. It builds on the existing partnership between LMS and Connells Group.

NPTN aims to better connect those involved in buying and selling a home, including the estate agent, mortgage lender and conveyancer, enabling key property, identity and financial information to be captured once and securely reused by the relevant parties throughout the transaction.

Earlier connection aims to reduce duplication and fragmented communication, which could significantly improve the process for buyers and sellers and comes amid growing momentum across the industry to improve the property transaction process, aligning with the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap.

Using information earlier and more effectively

Following its early participation in the NPTN Sandbox, Skipton’s involvement in NPTN will explore how information available across the property journey can be used earlier and more effectively, including through digital property identity.

Si Farrell-Roberts, head of lending at Skipton Building Society, said: “Buying or selling a home should be one of life’s most exciting milestones. Yet for too many people, that excitement can be overshadowed by unnecessary complexity, uncertainty and the frustration of delays. At a time when customers should be looking forward to their next chapter, they can instead find themselves navigating a process that feels fragmented and unpredictable.

“We have a real opportunity to change that. By working with Connells Group, LMS and NPTN, we can make important property information available earlier and allow it to be shared securely between the organisations involved.”

Chris Rosindale, chief operating officer at Connells Group, said: “Through this partnership, we can extend the reach of NPTN and continue to deliver on a key aim of the Government’s Home Buying and Selling Roadmap: making important property information available earlier and easier to share digitally.

Travis Scholes, chief commercial officer at LMS, said better connections were needed in what the customer sees as a single journey. “NPTN is about creating the connections that allow those organisations to work together more effectively and information to move securely through the transaction.

“By bringing together Skipton’s mortgage lending expertise, Connells Group’s estate agency experience and LMS’s property transaction expertise, we have an opportunity to demonstrate what can be achieved when different parts of the industry work together around a shared goal.”