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Crossrail data will soon be available on tmconvey, marking the latest in a series of new data layers added across 2019. 

Once enabled, you’ll be able to select ‘Crossrail’ from your mapping data layers and see the proposed Crossrail stations, as well as the route – clearly displayed in pink (where the track runs through a tunnel) and blue (where the track runs over the surface). 

You can also click on a station or section of the line to create a pop-up box – including location information and type (e.g. tunnel). Please note, where there is more than one section of the line in a specific area, you’ll see 2 pop-up information boxes.

You’ll also notice a link to the Crossrail site, which opens up a new tab showing you an engineering drawing of that section of the line, so you can see it in relation to the other buildings around it. 

How do I turn on this new data layer?

If you would like to turn on this new data layer, your TM administrator will need to update your company preference by following the below steps:

1. Go to ‘System settings’ on the tmconvey Services Dashboard

2. Select ‘System defaults’

3. Select ‘View’

4. Select ‘Mapping defaults’ 

5. If you scroll down, you will see a new section called ‘Map Data Layers’ – and various options to choose from including the new ‘Crossrail route’.  

6. Once you have settled on your choice, click ‘Save’

If you have any questions or queries, please contact your Account Manager, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk

With nearly 2 decades of experience in the search industry, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at tmgroup, Paul Albone, looks back at some of the key events and challenges that have shaped the search industry. 

2004

IT challenges were a common barrier to helping property professionals make the most of the technological advancements available 

For those of us “of a certain age”, we remember a time before the internet (and certainly the bandwidth of ADSL) and when a phone was just that – a phone! I have colleagues who used to visit client offices to perform user training and were met with a shared 56k dial up modem and the characteristic boing-boing when a connection to the internet had been established.

I say that to set some context as to the IT challenges that were faced when trying to deliver content rich mapping to conveyancers using the ‘new’ OS MasterMap™, which tmgroup launched back in 2004. This was some 6 months before Google Maps existed and 8 years before Apple launched their mapping product.  

Back then, tmgroup was operating as one of three NLIS channels, which, via the NLIS Hub, was trying to connect the 350+ Local Authorities and other data providers as the first steps towards e-Conveyancing. 

It wasn’t an easy ride. I particularly remember having to manage an increase in order rejection rates after launching our mapping, as Local Authorities complained that they were using up too much coloured ink on their printers when trying to process the orders – eventually resulting in us having to revert back to a black and white map with a ‘red line’ property boundary.

2005

Bowing only to mandated change led to relatively slow levels of progress in the property search space – and prompted the creation of OSCRE

With 30 years of IT and Development experience behind me, I have been surprised by the relatively slow levels of progress in the property search space, which does rise to the challenges of mandated change – but otherwise accepts a status quo. 

Back in 2005, I got involved in the PISCES (now OSCRE) organisation, which was addressing the need to create standards so that property-related information could be exchanged between businesses. 

I was lucky enough to chair the working group, which was looking at property searches, and together we managed to create some standards for the messages needed to order, deliver, query and chase property searches. These are still in use today by many conveyancing and property search data providers.  

2007-2010

The advent of HIPS acted as a catalyst for change and created high levels of operational efficiency with integrated ordering

Forced change can often act as a catalyst for achieving IT projects quickly, and this was certainly the case with the advent of HIPS. Through a 48-hour session, a new standard was adopted by all the major organisations, which allowed the ‘new’ HIP providers to order bundles of searches via B2B integration and XML data.  

Of course, this created high levels of operational efficiency, but also had its own challenges. I remember one tmgroup client who performed a software release only for me to get a call the following morning.  The code they had released was not ‘listening’ to the return message correctly and so had got stuck in a loop and they had ordered over 3,000 LR OC1 orders in the space of 15 minutes. By the time they called me, these had all been ordered and returned at a cost of £3 per order! 

2011

The cost of mortgage fraud was estimated at £1 billion – and many lenders reviewed their criteria for securing charges on a title  

In January 2011, the National Fraud Authority published its second annual fraud indicator, which estimated the cost of mortgage fraud in the UK to be £1 billion. A third of this was estimated to be conveyancer-led fraud! 

These facts led most lenders to review the criteria with which conveyancers could act for the lender on securing the charge on the title. During this time, tmgroup worked with lenders to understand their decision criteria and how this could be monitored and alerts created when criteria changed. We called this platform ‘TM Secure’. Not only did it look at the risk profiling of the law firm through datasets provided by people like Experian, but also looked to control the delivery of the mortgage offer and other steps of the process in a secure and robust fashion.

2015

Breaking down silos and introducing collaboration saw the birth of the digital customer journey

Integrated ordering continues to be a focus within the search industry and is enabling the change from paper documents to PDF versions and now more recently to ‘data’ payloads. By providing the data, it is possible to develop systems that can make decisions on the search results and create alerts to users where investigation and follow up actions are needed.

Since 2015, there has been an increased focus on collaboration and the digital journey of the consumer. We are seeing the emergence of portals, which provide a window into the transaction for the homemover and aim to create higher levels of transparency. Our tmconnect platform does exactly that in order to join up the estate agent, conveyancer and consumer with a single view of the case.  

Add to that the ability to ‘message’ the professionals involved with a home purchase and fill in documents online, and we are finally beginning to break down the silos and increase the collaborative feel of the transaction.

2017

Improving the home buying and selling process has been high on the industry’s agenda throughout my career 

There have been several attempts at home buying reform since the early 2000s, initially led by the Land Registry and their e-conveyancing programme.  This was followed by an industry-led group badged as the eHomebuyingForum, and then the Law Society-led Veyo project. Bringing us up to the present day, where we are currently in the grips of a Government-led programme to ‘Improve the home buying and selling process’.  

The quantity of attempts demonstrates that there is a reasonable understanding that the home moving experience in England and Wales is not what it might be. Yet it has not been possible to deliver on many of the goals of making the process, quicker, cheaper and more transparent – in other words, delivering high levels of efficiency leading to increased levels of certainty.

All too often, the failed attempts at achieving these lofty goals have been due to a siloed approach to single stakeholders and a lack of traction within their core market. However, change is beginning to happen – led by an increased appetite to invest in and adopt technology from multiple stakeholders across a transaction.

2019

Estate agents and conveyancers are beginning to put the homemover at the heart of their digital customer journeys

We are beginning to see an almost joined up approach between estate agents and conveyancers, who are both putting the homemover at the heart of their own customer journeys – and digital ones at that. 

Upfront information (no, not HIPs) appears to be a focus for many estate agency groups too. This is very promising, because if we can break down some of the trust barriers between the estate agents and the conveyancers, then the sharing of this information is eminently achievable.

As we head towards 2020 and beyond, I am encouraged by the industry’s openness for change. In the property search space, this is leading to the delivery of property ‘data’ and refined data leading to decision informing actions. If we couple this ability and appetite with the innovative solutions being created, I really do feel we are finally in the advent of change.

We are no longer in the world of shared dial up modems, and we all embrace technology in our everyday lives. As a technologist at heart, and a software developer of the past, I am finally encouraged that change is happening and the last 20 years have not gone to waste!

tmgroup talk to Jamie Winch, Policy and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Local Land Charges Programme, HM Land Registry about improving property search ordering through digitisation.

What are the benefits of a national digital Local Land Charges Register?

HM Land Registry (HMLR)’s national Local Land Charges (LLC) Register forms part of our transformational plans to become a more digital and data-driven registration business. This supports the government’s ambition for HMLR to become the world’s leading land registry for speed, simplicity and an open approach to data.

The LLC Register was launched in July 2018 with data from Warwick District Council and fulfils our objective to work with stakeholders in the property market to find ways to improve conveyancing. The new register helps provide a faster and simpler way to complete local land charge searches, improving the customer experience and reducing costs.

We are migrating the local land charges registers for up to 26 local authorities onto the new HMLR LLC Register in Phase 1. This will bring approximately eight percent of the national market into the central register and significantly reduce the average cost of a search for over 125,000 property buyers. 

The five local authorities currently on the LLC Register are:

• Warwick District Council

• Liverpool City Council

• Blackpool Council

• City of London Corporation

• Council of the Isles of Scilly

Benefits reported by these local authorities include:

• Reduced CON29 processing times 

• Increased capacity to undertake other activities in the time saved

• Devolution of registering charges to originating departments, increasing team capacity

• Fuller records, for example, a full spatial walkway of City of London has been created 

• Better quality records, for example, some listed building records which had been delisted have been rectified 

• Physical space saving: paper records have been digitised

• Capacity to review the CON29 process to streamline and automate

What’s coming next?

The following eleven local authorities are next in line to migrate to the LLC register:

• Lambeth Council

• Norwich City Council

• Carlisle City Council

• Milton Keynes Council

• Peterborough City Council

• North West Leicestershire District Council

• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council

• St Helens Council

• Watford Borough Council

• East Lindsey District Council

Our structured delivery approach provides flexibility for local authorities depending on their circumstances. This includes appointing an operational lead from HMLR to support local authorities with the activities needed for migration. We use the learning from each authority’s migration to inform decisions about future migrations and make improvements to the process. In total there are around 26 million charges to migrate so we have already created a number of intuitive and automated processes to speed this up.

How do you expect digitisation to shape things in the future?

The LLC Register is a governmental register which has spatial data at its core. To each spatial extent we create, we add the particulars of registration to make a local land charge.  

The register itself provides important statutory property information that informs the homebuyer during conveyancing. Once completed the LLC Register will deliver digital national data sets for specific charge types including:

• Listed buildings

• Tree preservation orders

• Conservation areas

What will search ordering look like in 2040?

We can’t speculate what search ordering may look like in 2040 but our Digital Street research programme is investigating how conveyancing might look in a future digital world.

Our Geovation project (in collaboration with Ordnance Survey) is supporting a range of PropTech companies ensuring the UK is the best place to launch and grow a start-up that uses location or property data.

Read HM Land Registry’s guest blog by Tom Ansell of Bretherton’s Solicitors to find out more about the benefits of the digital LLC Register.

Ordering searches is business as usual for property teams as they perform their due diligence and progress transactions to completion, yet the data their reports draw upon can tell us so much more. 

Here Groundsure take an in-depth look at available search data and reveal 20 facts you probably didn’t already know about the UK property market – including just how many properties are within 1km of the HS2 development.  

1. There are 560,677 dwellings within the UK that have a ‘Medium’ or ‘High' level of flooding from rivers and seas – and 10.25% of these may experience difficulties obtaining flood insurance for their property.  

2. Landowner permission is no longer required if oil and gas drilling takes place below 300m.

3. Towns ending in “wych” or “wich” tend to be associated with salt: Droitwich in Worcestershire, as well as Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich and Leftwich in Cheshire are all known for their salt production.

4. Only approximately 259 postcodes in England fall within both the CON29M Coal Reporting Area and the Cheshire Brine Compensation Area.

5. 2,433,869 properties are within 1km of the HS2 development and every mile of track costs £403m!

6. The average insurance claim for a flood event is £28,000 yet only 6% of homeowners take steps to protect their property. By comparison, the average fire claim is £7,300 and 80% of homeowners protect against it, whilst the average claim for burglary is £1,000 and 54% of homeowners take precautionary steps. 

7. A Facebook photo once rumbled a false claim on a TA6 Property Information Form!

In 2012, the garden of a property in Newcastle flooded. In 2014, a couple purchased the property for £750,000. When they received the TA6 Property Information Form, which is completed by the seller, question 7 “Has any part of the property (whether buildings or surrounding garden or land) ever been flooded?” the sellers had answered “No”. The purchase successfully completed and the new owners moved into the property. In 2015, the garden then flooded twice, as did the basement of the property. The new owners then pursued legal against their vendors for “rescission on the sale contract” and to support their claim, discovered a photograph on their vendors Facebook page from July 2012 showing the back garden flooded. Whilst it is extremely rare to use the TA6 form as evidence, this goes to show that if a dedicated flood or environmental search had been purchased, the purchasers would have been fully aware that their property was at an incredibly localised flood risk. 

8. The average cost of cleaning up contaminated land is £250,000 per acre, meaning the average contaminated household plot would cost £15,000.

9. It wasn’t until 2000 that a CON29M report became a mandatory search undertaken by solicitors when acting for clients purchasing properties in former coal mining areas. 

10. 600 datasets amassing over 16 terabytes (yes, terabytes!) of data power the full suite of Groundsure reports and help conveyancers better inform their clients about environmental risks – including data on contaminated land, flooding, ground stability, current and historical land use, and transportation.

11. It wasn’t until 2000 when the introduction of Part 2A legislation came into effect, followed quickly by the 2001 Warning Cards, that it was recommended that conveyancers screen against contaminated land risk in order to perform their due diligence. The Flood Practice Note of 2013 and the Contaminated Land Practice Note of 2014 further cemented the need for environmental searches in land and property transactions.

12. In 2018, there was a 400% increase (versus 2017) in insurance claims due to natural ground subsidence. This is thought to be mainly due to the long hot and very dry summer – and not because of several million people jumping up and down when England finally won a penalty shootout.

13. 11% of the UK is either licensed or offered for oil and gas exploration.

14. Around 619,000 hectares of land in England and Wales were formerly covered by a wide range of industrial uses. 

15. Around 1.2 billion journeys are made on the London Underground each year and 55% of the network is above ground.

16. The biggest cause of natural ground subsidence insurance claims is due to shrink-swell clay soils as they expand and contract due to moisture changes.

17. 11% of the UK is occupied by the coalfield – with over 7 million properties within this area.

18. Groundsure holds a collection of over 3 million Historical Land Use records derived from OS Mapping, dating from as early as the 1840s. 

19. There are 7,781 onshore turbines in 1,991 projects in the UK.

20. An average fracking site is around 2ha in size, compared to 1,450ha for a wind farm, and 924ha for a solar farm.

As consumer expectations and the evolving home buying and selling process demand ever more from the search industry, we spoke to property experts – including representatives from the Conveyancing Association, CoPSO and Shakespeare Martineau – to find out where they think the search industry is heading. Here’s what they said… 

1. Available search information will continue to evolve – maybe even to assessing flight paths for drone deliveries 

We all want different things from our homes and the areas we find them in – and how we live will inevitably change in the future.  Today, we are considering how to install electric car charging points or where to store wheelie bins. In 20 years, will we want to know where we can park our flying car?  

Property professionals are practical and searches will continue to adapt to our needs. Will searches involve flight paths for deliveries by drone? Or will all that be old hat? I’m looking forward to finding out!

2. Greater online connectivity will streamline the delivery of information

Technology will continue to drive massive changes in how we access information. In 20 years, it will be easier to find all relevant property information through greater digitisation and more interactive ways to view it. Greater online connectivity could also streamline the ordering and delivery of the information a buyer needs.  

3. Each property could be given a stamp of approval to reassure the buyer

As increased speed requires greater certainty about who pays for what, liability is an issue that will cause concern.

Will we see the trend towards professional opinions in search reports extend to multiple search reports, for example, an (insurance-backed?) stamp saying that the search results reveal nothing that need concern a buyer? This would of course have lots of small print and limitations, but may help. Could this also be available at the marketing stage like an EPC and mean the seller would order searches, and buyers could rely on them?

Megan Jenkins, Professional Support Lawyer at Shakespeare Martineau 

4. All search data feeds will be provided in real-time and refreshed to keep the homemover up to date

Upfront information is the key to improving the home mover experience and we are pushing the agenda to improve the customer journey – both from the seller’s perspective in completing information necessary for the sale of the property, and the buyer’s ability to digest that information in an accessible way.

How much better would it be if the seller’s information form is a combination of the CPR disclosure and conveyancing information and is pre-populated using the authority data, so that the seller is prompted to explain any anomalies between the physical and legal position – at the point of marketing?

The conveyancer could then advise the buyer on the true position and what it means for the buyer’s intended use and enjoyment. Whilst the seller’s conveyancer could advise on any resolution of breach of the law, contract or lender requirement, which will be necessary to satisfy the lender or enable the buyer to utilise the property as they wish and to be able to sell it for full value on the open market when they wish to move on.

All of the search data feeds could also be provided in real-time and refreshed, so that owners could continue to monitor what would impact their planned use or alteration of the property during their ownership, when they remortgage and when they come to sell.

Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the Conveyancing Association

5. Estate agents will want access to searches information at the time the property is being listed for sale

There is currently a lot of discussion in Government and across the wider property market about bringing information provision to the beginning of the home buying and selling process. 

This implies that estate agents may increasingly want access to relevant information about a property at the time they are listing it for sale. Some conveyancers are already offering ‘exchange ready’ packs, which have demonstrably helped to speed up the process, reduce attrition and ultimately saved redundant cost.

6. The possibility of using insurance as a proxy for information will focus the search industry on speed, quality and sophistication

Search providers increasingly see themselves as PropTech companies moving beyond the traditional boundaries of the search industry and becoming broader information, process and technology businesses.

All this against a move in some quarters to use insurance as a proxy for information as an expediency for speeding up the home buying process – although research with homebuyers has always found overwhelmingly that they want information and not insurance. 

The potential use of insurance however acts as a further spur for the search industry to focus on speed, quality and sophistication in property information provision.

7. Steps will be taken to digitise the CON29 – following on from the digitisation of the LLC1

The centralisation of local land charges at the Land Registry will throw focus on the CON29, as it makes little sense to create a streamlined and efficient online service for half of the local authority search offering. 

Whilst the conclusions of a recent report on the future of the CON29 have not yet been made public, they are unlikely to recommend the status quo. That the report was commissioned by Government, and undertaken by an official from the Land Registry, suggests that there is an understanding that centralising local land charges in isolation will not deliver any benefits to homebuyers and sellers.

8. Lawyers will increasingly expect searches information to be served up electronically

With a number of conveyancers starting to ask for much more sophistication in how search information is served up to them, there is likely to be a sea change in how search companies operate. 

Lawyers simply want to know what issues may affect their client’s decision to buy any particular property and not to have to wade through pages and pages of search products. They want the information to be served up to them electronically and to be able to rely on it with recourse back to the provider.

James Sherwood-Rogers, Chairman of CoPSO

9. Clients will continue to behave cautiously and be ever-hungry for data

The complex home buying and selling process looks ugly from the outside but its Darwinian evolution is beautifully aligned to balance the rules, relationships and constraints that have shaped it – and which continue to shape it. Without changes to these levers, the equilibrium won't change radically. 

The principal, immutable lever is the importance of the transaction to the client. Buying or selling property will remain up there amongst the most important transactions we as individuals ever make. 

These high stakes coupled with clients' typical lack of expertise and their natural self-serving motivations mean clients will behave cautiously and tactically. They will be ever-hungry for data that better informs or gives them a competitive advantage. 

10. Savvy clients could become search providers’ new customers – instead of conveyancers

One major change we might see is a move away from the clients of search companies being conveyancers. Increasingly, savvy clients researching properties may self-serve; the portal community might see competitive advantage in enhancing listings data; lenders might front-load their lending due diligence, and new property log book style businesses may begin to 'pre pack' properties for sellers. 

The future is certainly more data and certainly supplied smarter, but probably to a range of new types of client.

11. The search industry will continue to morph into an integral risk management component of the conveyancing process

Looking back in order to look forward, the search world's recent evolution has seen ever more data sources becoming available and ever smarter ways being devised to serve them up to the conveyancer. 

The search industry feels as if it's morphing into an integral risk management component of the conveyancing process, with case management integration on the one hand and interpretative layers added to the data on the other. 

All of this is helping to manage the risks presented by both the people and the properties involved in a transaction.

Richard Hinton, Pitsford Consulting Limited

12. We’ll see intelligent and personalised scorecard output for every transaction – returned in seconds

Predicting 20 years hence with any degree of certainty is always hazardous when you consider that in 1999 email was only really starting to emerge as a reasonably common method of communication and the internet was only just starting to be used commercially.  

There are some predictions I would be very confident in making, although I don’t think we will need to wait 20 years for them to come about. Within that time, all property search information will be returned as data in seconds, and that data will be directly inputted into client systems and interpreted by a set of business rules governed by either the client or an insured third party.  

This will create an intelligent and personalised scorecard output for every transaction, which all parties can see and ultimately rely upon in their decision-making. Much of the data already exists in a consumable format, and there are already examples of similar delivery systems, intelligent automated workflow and business rule engines being used within the lender community.

13. All data and documentation relating to transactions will be hosted in secure virtual data rooms

All data and documentation relating to transactions will be hosted in secure virtual data rooms, with access provided to each of the authorised parties involved in a transaction – including conveyancers, lenders, brokers, surveyors and estate agents, as well as the end consumer. 

This change will radically alter the way in which communication and process in the property transaction world is managed, and is the most exciting opportunity for the industry in the coming years – as a transaction could be completed in hours or even minutes.

These convictions are borne out from the work that is already going on within the industry, including the work we are doing today at tmgroup with products such as tmconnect and mio. I would anticipate much of this happening within the next 5 years, especially as we see the continued drive to digitisation within HM Land Registry and the Government in general.

Joe Pepper, CEO at tmgroup

14. Consumers will demand more data as well as a more efficient home buying and selling process

In the 1970s Roy Amara said, ‘We tend to overestimate the effect of technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run’.  

That was before the advent of proper computing power and big data. At some point, it would seem sensible to assume that all property data will be available instantly and the price of that data will fall.  

Consumers will also seek more data, and they will demand it faster and cheaper to facilitate quicker, more efficient home sales and purchases. 

Chris Harris, Managing Director of Lawyer Checker and The Practical Vision Network

15. “Property passports” will save the need to repeat the same searches over and over again

The Government has already considered the possibility of introducing “Property Passports” whereby searches (amongst other documents) would be logged with the property. 

If implemented, this would save the need to repeat the same searches over and over again and could mean the conveyancer’s role will be solely advisory – reporting on searches without having to manually source them. This will also have the added benefit of saving costs. 

16. Artificial Intelligence will extract key information automatically and save conveyancers from having to read full search reports

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence could be another key advancement. At present, conveyancers are not only having to manually request searches, but then read through the various pages to select the issues worth highlighting and reporting on. 

In the future, Artificial Intelligence will provide the opportunity for the key information to be extracted automatically, hence saving valuable time and arguably, improving accuracy. 

17. Technological advancements will free conveyancers of admin and shift them purely into an advisory role

As we move towards the world of 2040, further technological advancements will be key. For example, technology could be used to reduce the preparatory work involved in ordering searches, such as selecting plans and specific searches. 

Consequently, we’ll see the conveyancer’s role move away from a mix between administrative and advisory, and instead towards purely advisory. This will inevitably help to speed up the process. 

18. The lack of standardisation will be addressed to make the home buying and selling process quicker, cheaper and less stressful

There is no doubt that there have already been changes with how property searches are obtained and responded to. This is especially apparent with Local Authority searches. 

Although we are already seeing time frames decrease and the digitisation of results occur, this still differs across the board. There is a lack of standardisation and it remains the case that whilst some authorities may respond in days, others may take weeks. 

This clearly needs addressing and indeed, the Government has recognised the need to "make the home buying and selling process quicker, cheaper and less stressful” (Improving the home buying and selling process, April 2018).  

Chloe Banks, Trainee Solicitor at Weightmans LLP

19. We may see a shift away from searches and due diligence – and instead towards transaction insurance

The big change, and I’m not saying it will be a smooth change, will be the way we use and trust data. It would be a big leap to trust the ‘single version of the truth’ that use of Blockchain in property transactions would require. 

However, it seems more likely that the other potentially transformative jump will be to doing less due diligence, and demanding fewer assurances, but covering the whole transaction using insurance. 

The ‘prop-tech’ pilot completed by law firm Mishcon de Reya and the Land Registry shows how some immediate changes can work – and this area is definitely worth watching. 

Eduardo Reyes, Commissioning and Features Editor at The Law Society Gazette

20. All property data will be held in one place – and it will become quicker and cheaper to obtain property information

20 years ago, I started at my firm as a newly qualified solicitor. At that time, most solicitors did not have computers on their desks and ordering searches involved completing numerous forms, hard copy and in duplicate. You had to check search fees using a directory and send cheques for each one. Let’s just say it was rather time-consuming! Fast forward 20 years… and we are now used to having a single search platform to order all searches in a few clicks.  

So what will we see in the next 20 years? 

There is always a drive to make the buying and selling process quicker and more straightforward. We are currently seeing the phased introduction of Council records – the Local Land Charges data – being transferred to the Land Registry. This will take a number of years to implement across the country, but could eventually lead to all property data being held in one place. This would make it quicker (and presumably cheaper) to obtain the sort of information that is required for a property sale and purchase.

Rebecca Swain, Partner, Thomson Snell & Passmore LLP, Residential Conveyancing

Want to share your thoughts on industry events, trends and predictions?

Get in touch with our marketing team on marketing@tmgroup.co.uk to find out more about adding your voice to our next panel discussion.

We spoke to industry experts – including Rob Hailstone (Bold Legal Group), Alan Milstein (Residential Property Surveyors Association) and Eduardo Reyes (The Law Society Gazette) – for their views on what needs to change to get Britain building, speeding up New Build transactions, and meeting the demand for more housing. 

Here’s what they said…

Eduardo Reyes, Commissioning and Features Editor at The Law Society Gazette:

We need to create greater density in outlying areas of cities and invest in our transport links

In the 20th Century, my home city of London achieved growth in homes in a way that has created challenges for future development. Many other cities and towns share this experience. In particular, the 1930s saw a boom in housebuilding, fuelled by new, widely available mortgage products. 

This great democratization of finance delivered huge swathes of housing, though a significant proportion was built in areas that were poorly-served by infrastructure, including transport. Hence, they remain part of the city’s great sprawl. 

We need greater density in outlying areas, of our cities and towns, and that means creating or improving attractive ‘town centres’, using vacant land, and improving our transport links. 

‘Section 106’ is inadequate and needs to be reformed 

‘Section 106’ – the mechanism by which developers reach agreement with councils on the provision of infrastructure and community facilities – needs to be reformed. It has proved an inadequate way to deliver the infrastructure and facilities needed to create new centres. 

One result has been further rings of development around older established centres – a sense of identity and convenience getting more diluted the further out you are, so the incentive for more rapid growth is reduced. 

Further out, we too often wind up with freestanding housing developments with low densities, which do not sit in any cultural or economic context other than a road trip to work and shops.

‘Section 106’ agreements are too often superficial, prettifying add-ons to new developments. A more powerful and reliable mechanism is needed.  

We need to tax unused land to stop people sitting on it as an investment

Tax law needs reform. Development potential increases the price of land even before homes are built on it. It has become a helpful asset for some businesses to sit on, including both supermarkets and developers themselves. We need to find a way to tax such unused land at a level that will bring it in to ‘use’.  

New laws keeping the cost of retail space down would help to create new centres with a heavier density of homes and businesses

Stricter Paris-style ‘designated use’ laws on commercial property, chiefly shops, should also be considered to keep the cost of retail space down, and its variety up – and such spaces should be designed into new centres. This strengthens the idea of a new ‘centre’, around which a heavier density of homes and businesses can grow, because people will sacrifice space to be near them. 

The high streets in my bit of South East London often have lower-cost retail units than seen elsewhere in inner London, and it has made a renaissance for independent businesses possible  – some wildly successful, others just optimistic try-outs, all of them adding to the convincing fabric of the place. 

Christopher Watkin, UK Property Market Commentator:

There should be incentives in place for building inexpensive homes

There has been a shortage of smaller townhouses and smaller apartments being built in the UK over the last 20 years. The builders do want to build, but there's a deficiency of building land in the UK, and if there's a shortage of building land, then of course new homes builders build whatever gives them the biggest profit. The properties that give them the largest profit are the biggest and most expensive properties and they certainly are not bungalows as they take up too much land. So who can blame them?

Yet would it surprise you to know that it’s not a lack of space (look at all the green you see when flying over the UK), it’s the planning system. Green belts must be observed, but only 1.2% (yes 1.2% - that isn’t a typo) is built on in this country as a whole with homes – we need the planners to release more land (and then force/encourage builders to build on it - not sit on it). Another problem is that of the smaller new homes that have been built, most of them have been snapped up for renting, not owning. 

So, what’s the answer? Build more Council houses? Yes, sounds great but the local authorities haven’t enough money to cut the grass verges, let alone spend billions on new homes. The Government did relax the planning laws a few years ago, for example for changing office space into residential use, yet they could do more as currently new homes builders have no incentive to build inexpensive homes or bungalows that the system needs to make a difference.

We must all remember that property will always be a great investment

Changing the dynamics of the national property market will only change in decades, not years. The simple fact is we are living longer, and we need 240,000 to 250,000 houses a year to stand still with demand, let alone start to eat into 30 years of under building, where the average has been just under 170,000 households a year. 

That means, today as a country, we have a pent-up demand of 2.25m additional households and we need to build a further 4.2m households on top of that figure for population growth between 2019 and 2039. So, irrespective of whether we have a short term blip in the property market in the next 12/18 months, investing in property is, and always will be, a great investment as demand will always outstrip supply.

Dominic Woodward, Director, Tri-core Developments:

We need to invest in our planning departments so workload, holidays and sickness breaks stop being a roadblock for planning applications  

The main roadblock is the planning system. Getting planning through in a timely and cost effective way is not straightforward. The planning portal says 13 weeks for a complex full planning application to be decided, but those involved in the system know this is not the reality. 

Routinely, consultation responses are not provided in time due to workloads, holidays and sickness breaks for those persons involved. This requires planning officers to request an extension of time meaning the clock stops before the stated deadline. Planning applicants have little choice but to accept these requests for extension, as refusing the request to extend means the application will be determined “as is” resulting in a guaranteed refusal – leaving developers between a rock and a hard place. 

Cut-off dates for consultation responses and more rights for applicants – even at the cost of more expensive planning applications

Providing cut off dates for consultation responses could help, and in the event responses are not provided by the cut off, that department loses the right to comment on the proposed application. It would be a “use it or lose it” right for consultees to get their comments in on time. This is the case at appeal, so should be no different for an actual planning application.

In addition, there clearly should be more rights for applicants to get applications decided on time. The ombudsman that covers planning has no teeth, the default position seems to be if you have cause for complaint, just go through the appeals process. That will add 6 months to 1 year – plus all the additional costs associated.

Although likely not popular, we would actually be happy to pay more for planning applications to have a better funded system – but only on the provision of getting a better service that delivers decisions on time. The system is woefully underfunded, there aren’t enough planning officers (bums on seats) and those that are there usually end up leaving to work privately for better money, only worsening the problem.

Alan Milstein, Chairman, Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA):

Industry-wide snagging standards could make all the difference 

In the rush to build more houses, it is almost inevitable that question marks are raised over quality. Often buyers are given only a 15 or 20 minute accompanied tour on the day before completion to point out any snagging issues, which may, or may not be rectified before they move in. 

Stories of new homebuyers subsequently finding hundreds of snagging issues, as well as far more serious structural failings, are disturbingly common, and the rectification process is all too often a battle against an uncooperative major corporate developer.

The Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA) believes that protection for consumers can only come about by the development of industry-wide snagging standards to facilitate an objective and accurate assessment of quality to be made, allowing builders to know what is expected, and an Ombudsman to have a measure against which to make adjudications.

Bringing developers and warranty providers to the table to begin the task of creating proper snagging standards has proved challenging and slow. Understandably, perhaps, builders don’t want to accept the need for snagging standards because, according to their figures, satisfaction rates against new home owners significantly exceed 90%. But the reality is that a worryingly high number of new homebuyers experience a moderate or significant number of snagging issues and find the rectification process to be difficult, lengthy and, often, highly confrontational.

Matt Smith, WPB and The Chair Consultancy:

We need a National Housing Service to protect British citizens’ wellbeing

We need a National Housing Service. Housing is as integral to the wellbeing of British citizens as health and yet it is treated with almost contempt by those in Westminster –  something which needs to be adjusted if we are to improve policies. 

This is not a new suggestion. Countless government-commissioned reviews, leading economists and industry trade bodies have lobbied for years in favour of setting up an independent housing body – akin to the Financial Conduct Authority or Bank of England, but tasked with measurable targets to deliver a set number of new homes every year. Critically, to also think long-term about the tenure make-up of the UK’s housing market. Our need has never been greater.

We need to start building for everyone – not just for capital gain

Britain needs to be strategic and even-handed in housing, focusing the attention on helping the young and balancing out the housing market. Looking beyond the five-year mark, we need to encourage the delivery of every tenure. Policy changes are required and should be our focus. As the age of home ownership continues to rise, building for everyone must become more important than just building for capital gain. 

Policy must genuinely support all tenures. With over 1 million people on social housing waiting lists, we must recognise that institutional and affordable housing are worthwhile endeavours and encourage greater investment into purpose built rental homes. We should also remove the additional 3% SDLT multiple dwellings premium, as this would increase the affordable housing contribution. 

Precision-engineered modular homes could help to build high quality homes for the future

The supply in the housing market needs to adjust and recognise the need for more, advanced labour forces, in order to keep up with the growing technological advances and more control at local level. 

Mark Farmer published a report into the UK’s construction labour model entitled ‘Modernise or Die’. He identified the need for innovation to solve the skills crisis, and claimed that “We have so big a challenge around the declining workforce in construction that we cannot recruit or retain our way out of it. We have to be prepared for a reducing workforce, which means we need to be able to build more with less”. That means new ways of building for the future.

All in all, the demand for change in this market is high. The real challenge will be democracy ‘buying into’ the change. However, innovation and planning for the next 50 years would help. Our current housebuilding industry is capacity constrained and can’t possibly meet the 300,000 annual target. Precision-engineered modular homes offer a new way of building high quality homes - in volume and faster than traditional construction. 

Joe Pepper, CEO at tmgroup:

It will require real vision and leadership to help address the problem

Why is building new homes so difficult?  After all, as a nation we have been through terrific periods of house building in the last century, so what has happened to us to make it so difficult now?  The answer is multifaceted, but in essence we have made the planning laws increasingly complicated and reduced the number of firms competing to build, whilst at the same time leaving it more to the market.

The roots of many of the current issues go back to the 1980s, when the government erroneously believed that the population was likely to decline over the coming decades. This led to a massively reduced element of social housing development, and a tightening of conservation law around where property could be built. This combined with the subsequent periods of boom and bust, caused a disproportionate displacement of smaller developers contributing to the dominance of the larger developers that we see today.  

Given the length of time that it takes to navigate the local planning laws, a developer has to invest at risk for a long period of time before they can be confident of getting a return, and that gives the bigger and more established developers a significant advantage and creates a blocker for new entrants. 

The ongoing disparity between supply and demand also fuels the house price growth, which dis-incentivises further growth.  As time goes on, the problem only builds up, and as the government also benefits from the growth in house prices, it will require real vision and leadership to help address the problem.

Removing communication barriers could help to improve the situation in the short term

At a more prosaic level, we can seek to improve the communication between all parties – developers, local authorities, conveyancers, estate and land agents and so on.

At tmgroup, we have been linking local authorities and conveyancers for almost 20-years, and have recently extended that to estate agents and consumers through our mio platform. 

We are also in active dialogue with lenders and developers about extending it further which would give all parties the real-time status of a deal without the associated chasing around which currently happens.  

It doesn’t take much imagination to extend that further into the planning process to save time for all parties both during the process and during the subsequent sales transaction.

Rob Hailstone, CEO, Bold Legal Group:

New Build property transactions can be significantly helped along by homebuilders choosing their developer’s recommended conveyancer

Back in the 90s, I was recommended many, many times by the ‘site girls’ of a large developer in the South West. 

They liked me to be instructed because: 

• I had already been through the site documents and had (with the developer’s solicitors) corrected anything that I felt wasn’t right, and was therefore quicker than a conveyancer who had to trawl through the sale pack for the first time.

• I was prepared to be proactive rather than reactive.

• I gave regular updates.

• My fees were competitive. 

• I would even walk the site at various stages with the developer’s solicitors to get a clear picture of the lay of the land, etc…

In short, I knew the development inside out.

On a number of occasions, I had to push back when something was wrong or didn’t suit a particular client. Did the developer like it, no, did I care they didn’t like it, not at all! If anything, I actually earned their respect. However, I am sure one ‘site girl’ in particular (Gloria) still spits feathers every time my name is mentioned because she missed her target on more than one occasion when I insisted something needed changing. The majority of conveyancers are professional and not easily swayed from the duties that they owe to their clients. Being recommended by a developer to act for their buyers should not, therefore, be an issue. After all, they act for buyer and lender more often than not, and cope well with any conflict there.

Want to share your thoughts on industry events, trends and predictions?

Get in touch with our marketing team on marketing@tmgroup.co.uk to find out more about adding your voice to our next panel discussion.

Here’s a sneak peek at what we’ve got planned for our tmconvey platform in the months ahead to help save you and your team even more time in the property transaction. 

Even more mapping enhancements

Following on from the addition of HS2, Crossrail, Overseas Corporate Ownership Data (and more), we’ll be enhancing our tmconvey mapping even further with…

• Boundary alerts

Our mapping will soon be able to alert you when any Local Authority boundaries are close to the subject property, or when a property happens to straddle a boundary, so you spot any unusual cases in advance and better understand the local searches you’ll need to order. 

• Reset button

We’re enhancing our drawing functionality with a new reset button, so you can easily remove an outline and redraw it as many times as you need to. 

• Undo button

We’ll also be adding an additional button to allow you to undo your drawings step-by-step, so you can tweak the outline as and when you need to.

New integration partners

We’re proud to say that we already have good working relationships with law firms to provide integrations with CMS providers SOS and Visualfiles. 

However, we’re also in conversation with Tikit, Peppermint, Mattersphere, Linetime, Proclaim, Osprey, Ochresoft, InTouch Legal and Sharedo to support further integrations.

Improving the end-to-end search ordering process 

We’re always listening to our customers as we continue to evolve our tmconvey platform. In extension of this, we’re currently in consultation with several law firms about how we can make our search ordering process even better. 

Keep an eye out for tweaks and changes across the year that will make it quicker and easier for you to order your searches. 

If you have any questions, please get in touch with your Account Manager or our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

Want to find out more about the challenges facing New Build developments in the UK? Here is a collection of some of the latest research; showing the extent of the issue alongside proactive solutions for a better future. 

Addressing Our Housing Shortage: Engaging the Silent Majority

Shelter : March 2015

Although a little dated (2015) this report highlights some of the persistent challenges around the building of new homes. 

Key findings include:

• There is a sharp contrast between those who support homes being built in their local area, who are typically renters and shared owners, compared to the ‘outright owners who tend to oppose homes being built in the local area – reflecting the extent to which these groups are affected by the shortage of housing.

• Active opposition and support are more common among people living in rural areas, highlighting that housing is more hotly contested in these areas.

• The main reasons for opposing local housebuilding are pressure on local infrastructure and services, particularly roads, and the loss of green space. Loss of green space is more important to younger people, pressure on local infrastructure to older people.

• Actively opposing or supporting a local development is not particularly common – 86% of people have not done either.

Bringing home ownership back into reach: Assessing the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme after five years

Home Builders Federation : September 2018

This report summarises the positive impact the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme has had not only in helping First Time Buyers onto the property ladder, but driving a new wave of New Build housing supply.

Key findings include:

• Because Help to Buy is exclusive to new build homes, demand for new properties has increased since 2013, and builders have increased the number of homes delivered to better meet this demand. Since Help to Buy was introduced in 2013, net housing supply has increased by 74% to similar levels seen in the 1950s.

• The extra demand for new homes has seen unprecedented increases in investment by house builders in land and labour with planning permissions up by 88% over this period, clearly demonstrating a continued appetite by developers to sustain the recent increases in supply and deliver more new housing over the next three years in particular.

• Whilst transactions in the wider housing market remain subdued (down 21.4% on 2006 levels) activity in the new build market continues to rise. New builds now account for almost 15% of mortgaged housing market transactions compared to a long term average of 8.2%.

• Unlike previous attempts at such schemes, Help to Buy has been accessible to builders large and small, with over 3,000 companies, the vast majority of them small local builders, now registered.

Improving the home buying and selling process : Summary of responses to the Call for Evidence and government response

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government : April 2018

Although not a dedicated report on New Build, the summary of responses to the Call for Evidence did include discussion around New Build (page 48 onwards). 

Key findings include:

• Over 13% of all respondents said that developers should provide a fixed completion date for the build and give more information about expected timescales. 

• Over 6% of respondents argued that developers should be regulated and an ombudsman set up to enforce these regulations. 

• Where something goes wrong, house builders and warranty providers should fulfil their obligations to put this right. 

• The Government are keen to improve redress for people who experience problems with their housing and to make them feel empowered to challenge poor practices when things go wrong. 

• 15% of respondents stated that buyers should be encouraged to secure a Decision in Principle before they make an offer on a new-build property. 9% of all respondents stated that developers and lenders should have pre-approved mortgages, valuations and/or surveys for new builds.

• The Government is clear that buyers of new build homes should not be placed at a disadvantage when compared to purchasers of second hand homes - and will continue to work with lenders and mortgage brokers to discuss specialised products for the new build market, including an extended Decision in Principle.

Rebuilding Trust: Discussion Paper

Grosvenor : July 2019

This research report explores why the public doesn’t trust the planning system, developers or local authorities when it comes to large-scale developments and their impact – and what could be done to begin creating better relationships and more trust for everyone’s benefit. 

Key findings include:   

• Just 2% of people trust developers to act in an honest way in large-scale development, and only 7% of people trust their local councils. That they only care about making money and do not care about the needs of the local community were key driving factors behind this mistrust. 

• A demand for more transparency throughout the planning process was also highlighted. 

• There is often a clash between high expectations and reality. Developers might be expected to fund social housing, for example, without regard to the commercial feasibility of doing so.

Hard Choices : How much should the nation spend on building new homes?

London First : September 2018

This report reviews the current spending on building new homes and what needs to be done (in real terms) to address the funding gap. 

Key findings include:

• Looking at the current capital cost of delivering new housing in England, it is estimated that the current cost of delivering 300,000 homes a year in England is c. £67.6bn. Compared to current investment of c. £47.9bn, this is a c. £19.7bn increase, or 40%. 

• Viable options for filling this gap, ranging from the Government filling the gap, the private sector filling the gap, or exploring the possibility of a mixed economy – where the Government increases its capital spending on housing delivery, while also creating a more enabling policy framework to encourage greater levels of private sector investment.

• The historic under supply of housing has placed significant upward pressure on the cost of housing, which has contributed to the current affordability crisis.

• There is a consensus across all the major political parties about the extent of, and challenge presented, by the housing crisis. There is agreement that more homes must be built, but a divergence of views as to how this might be achieved.

Ordering searches against New Build properties is notoriously trickier (and more time-consuming) than working with second-hand homes – from having to work without a postcode point of reference, to managing endless queries from data suppliers. 

Outsourcing helps firms boost their workload capacity and win more business

Yet, spurred on by the Government’s push, more and more New Build cases are making their way to property teams across the country; forcing firms to re-evaluate how they manage their workload – without draining their limited resources. For many, including Braddon Snow Solicitors, outsourcing has been the answer. 

By managing New Build properties on a firm’s behalf, tmgroup help property departments create new efficiencies and better meet tight developer timeframes. All of which helps to boost their workload capacity, as well as their reputation, so they can win more New Build work in their area.

Managed Services take the hassle out of New Build search ordering

tmgroup are working at the forefront of delivering an efficient approach to managing New Build properties – with solutions including their ‘Managed Development’ service, which makes it easier for property teams to manage multiple plots on the same development site.

This service is tailored to firms named as the “appointed conveyancer” on a development, as tmgroup hold all relevant information about the development, enabling firms to issue a quick and simple instruction as and when the next plot is in progress. All the firm has to do then is wait for the results to come back and pass them onto their client; giving them more capacity to take on additional cases.

Jane Blackett, New Homes Conveyancing Team Leader at Braddon Snow Solicitors comments:

“We’ve been using tmgroup’s service for a number of years but found we needed a different approach for New Build given the number of plots we act on.  tmgroup worked with us on what we needed and now, for just over a year, we have worked with a bespoke system that we find much easier – especially when managing multiple plots on the same development. Once the site is set up confirming how many plots we expect to act on, all we have to do is fill in an order form and send across the plot plan. We then just ping an email over with the plot number as and when we want searches ordered against the individual plots. It’s just a much more effective use of our time.”

Firms using the ‘Managed Development’ service also benefit from agreeing search bundle costs in advance (making it easier to advise their clients), query and supplier management to minimise turnaround times, as well as Management Information (MI) reporting to make it easier for them to keep track of long-term development projects.

tmgroup work as an extension of the in-house team to get the job done quickly

Working as an extension of the in-house property department, the tmgroup team deliver against conveyancing search requirements from initial instruction through to returned results – using bespoke processes and systems to project manage. All the while giving firms the peace of mind of working with a knowledgeable team, with over 10 years’ experience in managing portfolios.

As Jane continues: 

“The Managed Services team are brilliant! Any queries, we just give them a call. If something has come up and we’re desperate to exchange, they’ll always make that extra call to chase the search – and 9 times out of 10 they’re successful too! They’re always on hand and we can’t fault the service.”

Outsourcing isn’t just for large-scale development projects – it can also help firms better manage one-off New Build transactions

Challenges around New Build don’t just slow down portfolio projects, they can also hinder the productivity of teams handling individual plots. That’s why tmgroup have extended their Managed Service to support these cases too. 

As and when the service is required, property teams can simply log into the tmconvey platform, add basic instructions to a dedicated form (accessible from a button on the tmconvey homepage) – and leave the tm team to take care of the rest. 

As with the ‘Managed Development’ service, the team will then create and map the property, order the required searches and liaise with data providers – all to support an efficient process right through to the returning of results.

Firms save time with fewer calls and interruptions across the working day

Fielding queries from data providers is one of the biggest headaches with managing New Build properties, but it often can’t be avoided as data providers require a certain level of information (that they don’t always get first time) in order to process the search. 

By letting the tmgroup team take care of any queries, firms benefit from fewer calls and interruptions across the working day. Why does it make such a difference? Drawing on years of experience, the team liaise with data providers and developers, as well as fill in any gaps in information – utilising their industry knowledge and relationships to help the transaction progress smoothly for all parties.

Want to find out more? 

tmgroup don’t operate on a one size fits all approach. We can develop processes within our service to help meet your needs and save you time. 

Talk to your Account Manager today, or get in touch with our friendly Helpdesk team on 0800 840 5571 or email helpdesk@tmgroup.co.uk 

tmgroup spoke to Paul Addison, Managing Director of DevAssist about Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments (SHLAAs), and how understanding where there is development potential is just as critical as advising clients on current planning applications.

Nearly ⅓ of properties have a high risk of development in their proximity

I think the first thing you really need to know is that nearly ⅓ of the property purchases you are consulting on, have a high risk of development in their proximity. Furthermore, this risk is not always made clear, so if this risk is unknown to the client at the point of purchase, are you responsible? 

You could well be. In an economic climate where we are all increasingly risk averse, a risk of unforeseen development for your clients is a risk to you. Claims against Professional Indemnity are one of the most common contributory factors to solicitors going out of business. 

‘95% of homebuyers are concerned about unforeseen development in their neighbourhood.’ (Institute of Economic Affairs)

Purchasing a property, only to discover too late that there is a significant risk of development nearby, can and does result in clients taking legal action against their solicitors. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen the rate of these claims increasing. Clients are placing responsibility for interpreting planning data, with their conveyancer. The landmark case which really shifted the perspective across the whole industry was the Bird & Bird case in back in 2014. 

Law firm Bird & Bird had been instructed to purchase a high value property in North London. However, they had failed to disclose to the client that a planning report had contained information regarding a substantial development planned nearby. The client did not learn of this development until after the contract had been signed and deposit to the vendor paid. Upon discovery, they pulled out of the sale and took Bird & Bird to court to recoup costs invested so far. Ironically, the development was nearby but would not have adversely affected their property. In court, Bird & Bird took the stance that they were not under any duty to provide the report. Regrettably, having felt they had followed protocol correctly, the judge took the side of the client. Bird & Bird lost the case and were ordered to pay £1.8m in damages plus interest.

So how do you protect your firm and your reputation?

My advice to conveyancers is always the same. You need to be accessing all the data available to you and not relying on planning data reports alone. Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessments (SHLAAs) are a land viability exercise undertaken by local councils. This assessment of land availability identifies a future supply of land which is suitable, available and achievable for housing and economic development uses. This is an activity taking place in all of our local neighbourhoods with a real risk of impacting us all, but so little attention is paid to them. This is of course great news for developers, but worrying for homeowners. For those that aren’t yet in the know; 

The assessment will:

• identify sites and broad locations with potential for development;

• assess their development potential;

• assess their suitability for development and the likelihood of development coming forward (the availability and achievability).

How does this affect you and your clients? 

Sites that have undergone this assessment are significantly more likely to be approved for planning permission. However, here’s the real catch, SHLAA’s are not reported in standard searches or planning data. If your firm only commissions the basic searches, you will be missing vital information regarding potential development. 

In addition to this, the planning data you receive is usually provided as raw data. This makes the data complex to interpret and in my experience, doesn’t give you the full picture. 

Important development insight is contained in the planning data but often, any risks of development to the property you are interested in, are not easily identified. This is due to the geo-coding of the data, making the proximity of planned developments to the property of interest, unclear.  It is often the case that planning data will identify a development proposal in the neighbourhood, but mislead you about how near that development is to a subject property. On a planned development of 2,000 homes, the geo-coding could be set to any point on that large acreage – likely some distance from the property you’re looking at. When in reality, the development is going to extend as far as the bottom of your client’s garden. 

The only way to extract the real risk of, or proposed development and its proximity to a property, is to assess the planning data alongside the SHLAA research. 

How likely is it that your clients will be affected by unforeseen development? 

Very. Particularly in the ever-shifting and evolving urban environments. Our research indicates that purchasers and investors have a 20% chance of experiencing major or significant change in London. In Manchester, this rises to 42%. We can’t always avoid development or the risk of it, but we can be better informed. 

Rooms without a view

Just last month in Folkestone, we were commissioned to deliver a report on a subject property which enjoyed uninterrupted sea views. The apartment was to be a retirement home and the views were the primary attraction for the buyer. We identified two high risk development proposals, just metres from the property. One of these proposals had already received planning permission. The approved development was for a large modern apartment block that would obstruct the sea views entirely from the property - see image below. 

These developments were not picked up in the standard conveyancing searches that had already been undertaken.

It’s not just the sea views under threat of course. We recently delivered a report for clients in Warrington. The property was a country cottage that boasted enviable rural views and a quiet location.

Our report ascertained that there was a real risk of development in the immediate vicinity of the property. Our report identified that the area as a whole has been considered for Garden City Suburb development and that one site, bordering the subject property had already been promoted through the SHLAA process. This insight wouldn’t have been exposed in standard conveyancing searches and was critical to the client’s decision on whether to proceed with the purchase.

Be informed 

I feel passionately that you can only take responsibility for the information, if you have the full picture. If your searches do not contain SHLAA data, you are missing a vital piece of the puzzle. This omission of data has been a source of huge frustration for me over the years and hence the establishment of my own company in this field. 

Discovering unforeseen development is not a rarity either. You and your clients will be impacted by development, as we are a small island in dire need of more housing! However, we can be more informed about our changing neighbourhoods, and in turn make more informed decisions when it comes to buying properties.

For more information about DevAssist, visit www.devassist.co.uk or get in touch with your tmgroup Account Manager.