Reed: Government backing for initiative
Lloyds Banking Group has become the first of several lenders to offer mortgage customers access to a “fully digital homebuying service” in a partnership with estate agents Connells Group and conveyancing services provider LMS.
Travis Scholes, commercial director of LMS, told Legal Futures that he expected “multiple lenders” to be offering the service by the end of this year, by which time the number of Connells branches involved would rise from the current 250 to all 1,200, across 80 local brands.
Mr Scholes said this was the first time that lenders had joined estate agents, mortgage brokers, conveyancers and product suppliers in offering homebuyers and sellers a “fully digital journey”.
He expected transaction times to fall by 35%, the saving achieved by a digital pilot not involving lenders which ended early last year.
Sellers using Connells – part-owner of LMS – can opt for the digital service, which uses proptech platform Moverly to capture their property, ID and ‘material information’. ID checks will not have to be repeated.
Buyers who have a mortgage application approved by Lloyds – the country’s biggest mortgage lender – can also opt into the service, which uses financial intelligence provider Armalytix for source of funds checks.
Mr Scholes said conveyancing search results were provided with the property listing, saving time.
Property search company TM Group, Credas, a digital identity verification service, and Novus Strategy – a consultancy supporting digital home buying – are also supporting the service.
All the information is entered on LMS’s national property transaction network (NPTN), a shared data-exchange platform, where it can be viewed by everyone involved in the transaction, once they are authenticated.
Mr Scholes estimated that a couple of hundred conveyancers would take part in the first phase of the service, but the aim would be to make it accessible to all the 3,700 active conveyancing firms on the LMS core panel.
He expected an update on the progress of the digital service to appear in August, when the first batch of transactions, possibly around 100, had completed.
Nick Chadbourne, chief executive of LMS, commented: “The industry has spent years diagnosing the problem. NPTN is infrastructure that delivers the solution.
“This initiative signals a serious move away from siloed processes and toward genuine market-wide reform.”
The network is built on agreed standards aligned to the Property Data Trust Framework, enabling adoption at scale.
Frances Cassidy, head of strategic and technology partnerships at Lloyds, added: “Our work with Connells Group and LMS shows what’s possible when estate agents, conveyancers and brokers work closely together, creating a more joined‑up experience and greater certainty for everyone involved.”
Housing secretary Steve Reed commented: “I’m pleased to see Lloyds Banking Group, Connells Group and LMS showing what’s possible by getting the right information to the right people earlier, cutting the delays and uncertainty that make moving home so stressful.”
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