By Rich Hill, Chief Technology Officer at Legal Futures Associate InfoTrack [1]
On 18 June 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published what has been called “the biggest shake-up of the homebuying process in a generation.” The headline numbers are hard to argue with: the average home purchase now takes around 120 days, 60% longer than in 2007, and one in three transactions still falls through, costing consumers roughly £400 million a year and the wider economy up to £1.5 billion.
Those aren’t abstract statistics for conveyancers. They’re the calls on a Friday afternoon, the client who’s already booked a removal van, the chain that collapses because a search came back too late.
The Government’s roadmap is a genuine attempt to fix the structural problems that cause those moments. For firms that have already invested in digital conveyancing, it reads less like a disruption and more like confirmation of the direction you’ve been building toward.
Here’s what the reforms actually mean, and where the real work lies.
Upfront sales packs: searches move to the start of the transaction
The centrepiece of the reforms is mandatory sales packs provided at the point of listing, including title documents, seller ID verification, leasehold terms, building safety data, standard search results (flood risk), and property condition reports.
The search element matters most. Under the proposed framework, searches won’t be ordered mid-transaction; they’ll be part of what the seller provides before a buyer even makes an offer. That’s a fundamental shift in the sequence of a conveyancing transaction, and it creates real questions the roadmap hasn’t yet answered.
The most immediate is validity. Searches carry a practical lifespan of around six months, driven by lender requirements rather than statute, so a property that takes eighteen months or two years to sell will see its searches expire before any lender accepts them. Search validation insurance exists as a workaround, but insurance on a stale search is not the same as a current one. The roadmap acknowledges the problem, committing to guidance on “how and when data such as search information needs refreshing” before legislation lands. That guidance hasn’t been written yet, so who pays for refreshes and whether lenders will accept seller-commissioned searches at all remain open questions.
The second question is commercial. The buyer’s conveyancer currently orders and charges for searches as a disbursement; under the new model, that work and revenue moves to the seller’s conveyancer, a real shift for firms built around high buyer-side volumes. If lenders are slow to confirm acceptance of seller-commissioned searches, buyer-side conveyancers may feel obliged to re-order independently, meaning higher total costs during the transition, not lower.
None of this means the policy direction is wrong. Conveyancers who opposed including searches in the pack (38% of consultation respondents, against 28% who backed it) raised these exact concerns, and the Government pressed ahead, intending to resolve them through further industry engagement. The case for moving search data earlier is strong: it removes one of the most common causes of late-stage collapse. But the practical framework — validity rules, the refresh mechanism, lender sign-off — still needs to be built.
For firms thinking about preparation, the useful question isn’t whether the model will change, but whether your search ordering capability is digital, fast, and CMS-integrated. When packs need refreshing at speed, firms with manual processes will feel that pressure most acutely.
Digital identity, eSignatures and AI: the Government put it in writing
One section of the roadmap will be welcome reading for anyone who has spent years explaining to clients why digital ID verification beats certified paper copies. The Government has explicitly backed digital identity checks, electronic signatures and AI-assisted conveyancing as tools that will “strip out duplication, reduce fraud risk and accelerate transactions from start to finish,” and committed to reducing duplicate AML checks across the chain, recognising that verifying the same client three times isn’t a compliance requirement, it’s an inefficiency.
There is also a Smart Data scheme in development, enabling secure sharing of verified property data between organisations at the customer’s request. A client verifies once, and that information travels with the transaction rather than being collected again at every stage. For firms still running paper-based onboarding or manual ID processes, this is the clearest possible signal that the direction is set.
The AI Growth Lab: conveyancing is explicitly in scope
One announcement that has received less attention than it deserves: the Government’s AI Growth Lab has legal services and conveyancing as its first focus area, with applications opening this summer. This reflects a genuine policy commitment, backed by investment in AI standards and an expanded HMLR API service making data-driven post-completion workflows more viable.
What the roadmap describes is exactly the kind of AI that should be in conveyancing: consistent, explainable, human-in-the-loop. Not AI that generates outputs and hopes for the best, but AI that reads documents, applies expert-built rules, and puts a verified result in front of the conveyancer to approve. That distinction matters, and it’s good to see Government policy reflect it.
At InfoTrack, that’s exactly how our platform works: reading documents at scale, routing queries, automating search workflow resolution, and generating enquiries through a rules engine built by conveyancers for conveyancers, processing over 40,000 documents a day at 98%+ accuracy, in single-digit seconds each.
What firms should actually be doing right now
Much of the commentary has focused on reassurance: no immediate mandatory changes, legislation at the end of Parliament, time to prepare. That’s fair, but “no immediate mandatory changes” isn’t the same as “no action needed.” The firms that benefit most will be the ones whose workflows already reflect where the market is going, with AI embedded where it changes what conveyancers can actually do.
Put AI in your workflow, not just on your radar. There’s a meaningful difference between a generic AI tool and one purpose-built for conveyancing, governed by expert rules, and integrated into the transaction from the start. The right kind reads documents, surfaces what matters, and keeps the conveyancer in control of a clear, actionable picture.
Start every matter with AI Document Review. As the transaction model shifts, getting on top of a matter quickly becomes more valuable. Document Review analyses the full contract pack at instruction, flagging what needs attention and the relevant next steps — raising an enquiry, ordering additional searches, checking lender criteria — without leaving the platform. This also means matters can be priced and routed before time is invested in a file that turns out more complex than it appeared.
Review your onboarding process. If client onboarding still involves paper ID, manual data entry, or separate AML and form-collection systems, the reforms will create pressure to change. Better to address it now.
Think about upfront search ordering. The sales pack model is built on searches being available at listing. Firms that can order digitally, with results feeding directly into their CMS, will be far better placed for the early-instruction model the Government is creating.
Start with eSignatures where you legally can, and be ready for when lenders catch up. QES are already in use across parts of the transaction: client care letters, TA forms, contract of sale, reports on title. The meaningful blocker remains lender acceptance of electronically signed mortgage deeds. Lay the groundwork now by embedding eSignatures wherever they’re already valid.
Get your digital ID process right now, ahead of the regulatory change. The Government has committed to reducing duplicate AML checks, but that requires legal change. Until it happens, firms remain obligated to run their own checks — so make sure those checks are digital, fast, and defensible, ready for when the legislation arrives.
The infrastructure already exists
The reforms aren’t waiting for technology that hasn’t been built yet. Digital client onboarding, biometric identity verification, upfront search ordering, digital SDLT and AP1 submissions, CMS-integrated workflows, eSignatures: all of this exists and is working in firms across England and Wales today.
InfoTrack is the only UK end-to-end conveyancing platform with AI built in, woven through every step from onboarding to completion at HMLR, not bolted on as a separate product: over a decade of conveyancing infrastructure, now transformed by AI that is platform-first, rules-governed and accountable to the conveyancer.
The roadmap describes, in policy terms, the future digital conveyancing has been building toward in practical terms for years. The question for every firm now isn’t whether to prepare, but whether the systems you’re running today are the ones you want to be running when preparation becomes a requirement.
If you’d like to see how InfoTrack’s platform maps to the reforms set out in the roadmap, speak to one of our team [2].