Mortgages: Predictable volume pipeline
Conveyancing firms should diversify into remortgage work and expand ancillary services such as advising on equity release, according to a new report.
It also expressed concern about the capacity in the market, with the number of conveyancers falling and the time to exchange reaching 123 days.
Taylor Rose remains by far the largest conveyancing practice – when judged by applications to HM Land Registry (HMLR) – making almost twice as many as O’Neill Patient in second place.
The fifth annual State of the UK Conveyancing Market report [1] from legal software provider Access Legal draws on a wide range of data sources and identified diversifying into remortgage work as one way for firms to thrive in the coming year.
“With 1.8 million fixed-rate deals maturing and external remortgaging forecast to reach £77bn, refinancing presents a highly predictable volume pipeline,” it said.
“For conveyancing practices intending to capture this transactional workflow, securing and maintaining placement on major bank and building society lender panels remains a critical operational requirement.”
Equity release “continues to grow” as an ancillary revenue stream, the report said.
“With an ageing population and sustained house price growth over the past decade, homeowners aged 55+ are increasingly accessing property wealth, and the volume of equity release instructions is rising as a proportion of total conveyancing activity.
“Firms that bundle equity release with wills, lasting powers of attorney and estate planning generate stronger client lifetime value and more predictable revenue.
“Equity Release Council accreditation is required to operate in this space, but for firms already serving remortgage clients, the cross-sell opportunity is significant.”
Another recommendation was to build national reach, with HMLR application data showing that firms with cross-regional filings accounted for a substantial share of total volume.
“This geographic spread reflects a market where case distribution is no longer strictly bound by a law firm’s physical office locations. Geographic expansion enabled by remote working and digital case management can be the single most impactful lever for volume growth.”
The report suggested that transaction timelines represented “a client satisfaction and pipeline efficiency problem”.
Firms that could reduce time-to-completion through upfront information gathering, digital ID and proactive communication “will win referrals and panel places”.
This led into the need to treat client experience as a strategic priority. “The market will not deliver easy volume growth but it will reward the firms that are best prepared to capture what is available, and best placed to retain the clients they win.”
An Access Legal analysis of Trustpilot reviews showed how client expectations kept rising: “In 2022, clients praised firms for returning calls the same day. In 2026, they expect proactive updates before they even think to ask.”
The number of solicitors practising in residential conveyancing fell to 10,724 by January 2026, down more than 2,000 since the end of 2021, and the number of law firms active in conveyancing dropped to an estimated 5,904.
“This creates a structural tension: demand is recovering, and the gap between capacity and demand is widening. The trend has been consistent for several years, driven by retirement, career changes, and a pipeline of new entrants that has not kept pace with attrition.”
The firms best placed to respond were those that could process higher volumes per fee-earner, including through “considered use of AI”.
Taylor Rose made 33,395 HMLR applications in the 15 months from April 2025 to June 2026, compared to O’Neill Patient’s 17,501.
They were followed by Setfords (16,272), Davisons (15,659) Gorvins (11,476), Talbots Law (10,589), Conveyancing Direct (10,793), PLS Solicitors (10,849), Watson Ramsbottom (10,086) and Connect2Law (9,404) – which operates as Muve and Nova – rounding out the top 10.
The report noted that the operational scale of Taylor Rose “takes a long time to build, and an equally long time for competitors to close”.
PLS Solicitors and Watson Ramsbottom had a different data profile from the other firms in that a lot of their applications (56% and 48% respectively) related to title splits and plot-allocations; the others were predominantly making applications on existing property titles, like standard transfers, equity release and remortgaging.
The report concluded: “The picture that emerges from FY25/26 is one of a market that has absorbed a significant shock and come through it in reasonable shape.
“The SDLT correction pulled forward demand and then created a void, but the remortgage wave filled much of that gap, and the gradual easing of interest rates has begun to restore the conditions for a more sustained purchase recovery.”
Andrew Stevens, general manager at Access Legal, said: “Because law firms can’t simply ask conveyancers to work longer hours to solve the deficit challenge, technology has become the primary answer to both modernise and streamline services.
“While the likes of technology and AI cannot replace empathy or judgement, they can help in alleviating stress and ultimately contribute to preventing burnout, allowing solicitors that time back to build those relationships with clients and to continue carrying out their work.”