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A survey of over 600 property professionals has revealed that more acceptance of digital and remote working has been welcomed by the industry and recognised as an outstanding positive of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is just one of many revelations featured in the new ‘Thriving in a pandemic’ report published today by tmgroup and mio, which also reflects on the challenges that have stretched the industry to its limits. 

Carried out across December 2020 and January 2021, survey participants – including residential conveyancers, real estate professionals, estate agents, developers, surveyors, and more – shared their thoughts on the lessons that reshaped the property market, and how they expect them to continue to change the face of property transactions in 2021 and beyond. 

The research also gathered key insight into the individual impact of these industry changes, which further reiterate the positive feeling towards the wider adoption of digital and remote working, including:

• “It’s been very challenging, but amazing how much can be done remotely.” (Residential conveyancer)

• “Working from home and the use of technology have been positive factors for me. Hopefully the technological advances will continue to leap forward in 2021.” (Real estate professional)

• “We’ve saved a lot of time and money – especially on travel costs – thanks to the collective shift to using technology instead of face-to-face meetings.” (Estate agent)

• “2020 has been a great opportunity to embrace change, not just within our firm but also the industry. For example, we’ve gone from paper files to full electronic working.” (Residential conveyancer)

2020 was the year that nobody planned for

Capturing a snapshot in time at the end of a remarkable year, the ‘Thriving in a pandemic’ report explores remote working, digitisation, workflow tools, collaboration, and more; not only reflecting on what has been, but looking ahead at what’s to come, as Joe Pepper, CEO at tmgroup comments:

“2020 was the year that nobody planned for, and whilst the UK property transaction industry would eventually fare better than many other parts of the wider economy, it was still the nearest thing to a rollercoaster ride that many of us will ever face in our working lives. Most of the industry has had to react and change at a pace not experienced for decades, and many of the ways of working that businesses operated to in the first quarter of the year had disappeared by the time we got to the summer, and it seems likely that some of the old certainties have been shattered forever. The reassuring factor is that the industry was able to change, and what has shone through is how resilient and adaptable we truly are.”

Want to find out more? The ‘Thriving in a Pandemic’ report is available to download now.  

With 2020 firmly behind us, Joe Pepper, CEO at tmgroup, comments on what might lie in store for the property market as 2021 begins to take shape in the face of economic uncertainty:

As the famous saying by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus goes “change is the only constant in life”, and that has never felt truer than in the extremes we’ve experienced in the last 10 months.

Whilst it is somewhat of a relief that we’ve dodged the looming threat of a no-deal Brexit, or yet another extension period, the fight against coronavirus continues to shape our daily lives. Even with the recent approval of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, and the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination programme, the UK is still facing an extended and unpredictable period of lockdowns.

Yet these are not the only factors that will influence the success of the property market this year…  

Furlough and redundancy will reduce lenders’ willingness to lend and lock some buyers out 

Beyond the ongoing saga of Stamp Duty, with its soap-opera style “will they or won’t they” end on 31st March 2021, there are, of course, several contradictory factors which will influence how confident the market is likely to be in 2021.  For many people, the events of 2020 have only increased their own insecurity, whether that is in their natural optimism or in more material terms in how secure their employment is.  Many have been on furlough or reduced pay, and many more have been made redundant and are now looking for work in a hugely competitive marketplace.  

Even if they find work then their recent experience will have reduced their long-term confidence and may well also reduce the willingness of some lenders to lend.  The recent crisis is only likely to have increased the pace at which a certain percentage are locked-out of the property purchasing market, especially when you consider that others have prospered in the same period. 

More and more people will be rethinking where they live now remote working is here to stay

However, for those who have been able to work from home and are secure in their jobs, they will have seen their outgoings reduced in 2020, and incidentally saved more than usual. They may also have seen enough of their home that they have lived, worked and even home-schooled their children in to realise that they may want something else. 

Fuelled by the conclusion that remote working is here to stay, these are the people most likely to move in 2021, as they are freed from the commitment to live in a major city, opening up the opportunity for a lifestyle change. Life changes will also drive activity in the property market over the coming months, as we are told to expect a baby boom in early 2021, as well as a flurry of break-ups and divorces.

Businesses will continue to adapt to challenging market conditions – including search delays

Outside of these wider economic factors, over which we as an industry have little or no control, there are trends and influences much closer to our businesses. In the short-term, transaction delays are very much part of the picture, as many parts of the market have struggled with capacity and effective working over the past few months. Conveyancers and Lenders are both typically working to extended time periods for handling correspondence, and many Local Authorities are operating search periods many times longer than normal.  

However, forward-thinking businesses are doing their best to adapt to these challenging market conditions and offer solutions to help take the pressure off. For example, tmgroup has recently launched a market-leading Search Delay Insurance product – provided by CLS Property Insight – to mitigate against the impact of search delays in the short-term.

We’ll hear more and more about digitisation and API integration

We’re also seeing positive developments in the longer term too, including the advice around digital signatures from HM Land Registry, which many firms are still digesting and looking to understand how they can implement into their current workflows. The adoption of digital signature technology is easy and readily available from a host of proven providers. More important though is the way that the technologies we all use continue to improve their ability to talk to one another, and to provide conveyancers and others with joined-up data and other information.  

It was during the first lockdown that tmgroup announced a new and industry-leading set of APIs, which allow conveyancers to easily integrate their case management systems with tmconvey and tmconnect, and shortly after that were able to provide a joined-up view of the property transaction through integration with mio, the leading Sales Progression platform for Estate Agents.  This year, it will be possible for a conveyancer to have the same real-time view as an Estate Agent and, through the mio app, update a home-buyer on the progress of a transaction, and for that information to be accessed in the conveyancer’s own case management platform.  

The trend for real-time sharing of relevant data between property professionals is only going to intensify in 2021. Regardless of the success of the coronavirus vaccination programme, remote working is very likely to remain predominant across 2021, which will only accentuate the importance of having information and data relating to the status of a property transaction easily accessible and available digitally. There remains huge potential for the conveyancing market to increase overall productivity, and that will be crucial whatever happens in the wider market this year.

Terrafirma are making price changes to their CON29M, Ground Report and Coal Extra report – effective from 1st January 2021. 

The changes are summarised in the table below - for 0-15 ha:

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

At a recent tm:tv session, a panel of property professionals shared their views on the challenges facing the continuing survival of the new build market during the global pandemic.

Private housing sector was one of the worst affected sectors

The property market has faced many hurdles recently, Brexit created a lot of uncertainty within the market stalling new development projects. January 2020 then saw a positive uplift within the New Build market, but as projects began to get back on track COVID-19 hit.

“Private housing sector was one of the worst affected sectors due to temporary closure of sites, with lockdown restrictions being lifted reopening of sites have been slow as developers had to ensure man power was reduced to adhere to the new social distancing measures that were put in place.” Commented Allan Willan Economic Director, Glenigans.

The current state of the market should not be taken for granted but instead seen as a rebound, transactions bounced back in Q3 and mortgage approvals up on this time last year, driven by short term concern of extended lockdown and wanting green space to hand. However, longer term, we’re going to see trends in lifestyle changes post-covid. Fewer and longer commutes really going to reshape the property market and change the face of commuter towns. All of this in short term will feed into price inflation. This will also likely be affected by general weakening in the housing market forecast in 2021 due to rise in unemployment and weakened economic growth as well as the temporary withdrawal of the stamp duty relaxation.

Lack of affordable homes is a major challenge for New Developments

The Government whitepaper outlined its views on changes to the planning system, however there is currently still a push against developments due to lack of affordable homes coming forward.

This is a big problem that needs to be addressed.

“I think the fixing of this issue is going to come through mainly housing associations delivering these developments rather than the private sector.” said Dominic Woodward, Tri Core Developments.

The whitepaper is set to announce removing affordable provisions from private development for sub 40-50 dwellings. This would then fall on the Housing Associations to provide this housing. From a commercial perspective, this change would benefit smaller developments in terms of return on investment, as sometimes it is not commercially viable for smaller sites to provide this type of housing.

“The bigger picture is that we are trying to unlock the delivery of large plots of land for various developments across all of the tenures with a wider range of deliverers rather than having a few large housebuilders” commented Lord Taylor of Goss Moor.

What will make the new build market a success?

“Real success comes from balancing the number of houses with the quality of houses without the adverse environmental impact.

Success is still waiting for us in the future. We cannot say we have achieved success in the past few years. If there had been success then we wouldn’t have a comprehensive White Paper aiming to rewrite the planning system” Tim Taylor, Foot Anstey.

Click here to watch the full session

tmgroup, the leading provider of property searches and data, are proud to be celebrating National Customer Service Week (5th-9th October 2020) in recognition of everything their teams have done and continue to do to support their customers during the coronavirus pandemic.  

As Joe Pepper, CEO of tmgroup comments:

“When we made the decision, on the 17th of March this year, to close our offices, none of us really knew what was to follow, and it was to the huge credit of the operational management within the business that we were able to successfully move all staff members out of the office and into home working within 3 days, so that by the time the UK Government announced the lockdown on the 23rd of March we were already out of the office and working from home. Today, our productivity is higher than it’s ever been, and despite the changes and challenges of the last six months, we continue to provide an excellent level of customer service in a very difficult market, and that is something to be proud of.”

To celebrate such an incredible achievement in the face of unprecedented market conditions, tmgroup will be engaging with The Institute of Customer Service’s 5 keys themes of:

• Monday: Insight: Knowing your customer and how to deliver to them

• Tuesday: Capability & Skills: Identifying and nurturing customer service skills in your organisation

• Wednesday: Recognition: Celebrate your customer service heroes

• Thursday: Leadership: Championing customer service in the boardroom

• Friday: Trust, Ethics & Sustainability: Building brand reputation through your actions

Jo Causon, CEO of The Institute of Customer Service adds: “National Customer Service Week is a week-long opportunity to raise awareness of customer service. It is great to see so many organisations across the UK - including tmgroup, celebrating the vital role customer service plays in successful business practice and the growth of the UK economy.”

To make the most of National Customer Service Week, tmgroup have planned an exciting line up of activities around these key themes – including paying tribute to their dedicated teams, telling their behind-the-scenes story of how they responded to lockdown, and sharing some of the sessions in their tm:tv series on how to deliver an even better customer experience:

• How to keep your clients safe: Amy Bell, from Teal Compliance Click here to watch

• How brilliant communication can help you and your clients keep in touch: Claire Smith, Moneypenny Click here to watch

• What are we going to do about Daniel? A true story of the real struggles customers face: Clare Yates, tmgroup Click here to watch

• The Customer Journey and the importance of measuring customer experience: Richard Knight, Insight6 Click here to watch 

• Surviving not thriving: Clare Fanner, Find Get Grow Click here to watch

For more on how tmgroup are celebrating National Customer Service Week, please follow tmgroup’s LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as the #NCSW20 hashtag.

tmgroup are inviting residential property specialists to free of charge events in London and Manchester in February to discuss the issues that will continue to affect the residential property market after 29th March. 

Sponsored by Groundsure and hosted by Pen Underwriting and Weightmans, the events will provide the opportunity to hear from guest speakers on a range of topics, including leasehold reform, financial crime and digital property transactions.  

Speakers include; Beth Rudolf from The Conveyancing Association, Edward Donne from Howden Insurance Brokers, Andrea Cohen from Weightmans, and Matt Smith, Editor of Future Housing.

• London: 7th February 2019 (3.45pm - 7.00pm)

Arthur J Gallagher, 67 Lombard Street, London, EC3V 9LJ

Click here to register for London :

http://web.tmgroup.co.uk/cn/an9um/regLondon  

• Manchester: 27th February 2019 (3.45pm - 7.00pm)

Weightmans, No 1 Spinningfields, Hardman Square, Manchester, M3 3EB

Click here to register for Manchester : 

http://web.tmgroup.co.uk/cn/an9um/backManchester 

For more information, please contact Hannah Dukes at marketing@tmgroup.co.uk 

Microsoft have awarded tmgroup Gold Standard partner status. 

Following on from many years as a Silver Standard partner, as well as our recently acquired ISO 27001 certification, this enhanced status further reassures our customers that we are a strong and reliable link in the supply chain. 

Being part of the Microsoft network is recognition of our commitment to creating and delivering innovative customer solutions and services based on Microsoft Technologies, acknowledging tmgroup’s product suite – including tmconvey, tmconnect and mio – as solutions designed and developed against the highest standards. 

Mark Gilbert, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at tmgroup comments:

“We are delighted to have achieved Gold Standard partner status, and proud of our dedicated team who have demonstrated technical competencies in application and web development, and the management of our data centre infrastructure.

We know how important it is for our customers to not only be able to trust us, but also to be able to reassure their own clients – with confidence – that their data is being handled in a secure environment. A world-recognised standard for excellence certainly helps.”

Our certifications set us apart as a high calibre business partner, proactively addressing the ever-growing threats of cyber crime and data theft by continually investing in our infrastructure and staff. 

For more information about tmgroup’s certifications, please contact your Account Manager. 

We’ve added visibility of Commercial Corporate Ownership Data (CCOD) and Overseas Corporate Ownership Data (OCOD) to tmconvey’s Map Search – available from 7th December 2018.

What is the Commercial & Corporate Ownership Data (CCOD)? 

Commercial and Corporate Ownership Data contains more than 3.3 million title records of freehold and leasehold property in England and Wales.  

CCOD is a subset of the Land register containing data describing registered titles relating to land and property where the registered legal owner is a non-private individual and is not a charity or an overseas company.

What is the Overseas Companies Ownership Data (OCOD)? 

Overseas Companies Ownership Data contains approximately 100,000 title records, which describes titles registered to an overseas company (a company incorporated outside the UK).

How do I access these new datasets on tmconvey’s Map Search?

When CCOD or OCOD information is available against a title, a message will appear on the left-hand side of the screen, letting you know that the title has UK and/or Overseas commercial interests. 

You can then click on the available link, and Map Search will produce a summary of the information held against that title – including title details, proprietor name, company registration number and proprietorship category. 

What else can I do with these new data sets?

• Print or save to PDF

When viewing the summary of CCOD or OCOD, you will also have the option to print and/ or generate a PDF for your records. 

Please be aware, these data sets are regularly updated and so the information is subject to change. As a useful reminder, we’ll automatically add a “generated date” to every statement that is printed or saved to PDF.  

• Link directly through to the Companies House website

In a CCOD record with a company registration number, you’ll notice that the number will be hyperlinked, so you can click directly through to the relevant record on the Companies House website (where available) and do a brief look-up on company information, if you need to. 

Please note, this hyperlink is also carried through to the PDF version of the summary statement, so you can also access Companies House from there.

You can find more information about our latest Map Search enhancements here and here. 

As you may already be aware, on Monday 15th October, Groundsure launched their updated and enhanced ‘Groundsure Screening’ report, as well as their redesigned and enhanced ‘Groundsure Review’ report. 

You can find more information about these changes, alongside pricing and sample reports, below:

Redesigned and enhanced : ‘Groundsure Screening’ report

This report is for lower value less complex commercial property transactions and multi-site portfolios. This enhanced report meets Law Society compliance on contaminated land and flood risk and it covers; 

> Full flood risk assessment and Energy data

> Planning constraints

> Ground stability screening

> Property specific radon assessment

> Transportation screening including Crossrail 1 and 2, HS2 and more

Enhancements include; intelligently filtered data, results in Plain English, intuitive layout and page flow, and fewer pages.

Click here to see a sample report 

NEW Pricing

Groundsure have also made changes to the price of their Screening report;

Redesigned and enhanced : ‘Groundsure Review’ report

Gives expert, bespoke opinion required for all high value property transactions, complex industrial sites and redevelopments.  The report includes;

> Law Society compliant contaminated land and flood risk assessment

> Ground stability and Property specific radon assessment

> Manual review of high detail historical Ordnance Survey mapping in all cases

> Operational environmental risk assessment from Groundsure’s in-house team of environmental experts

> Full Energy & Transportation data (including Crossrail 1 & 2, HS2 and more)

> Planning constraints

Enhancements include; intelligently filtered data with fewer pages - displaying only relevant results, manual assessments in plain English, operational environmental risk assessment, complete HS2 data, Crossrail 2 route and safeguarding, optional planning applications, and intuitive layout and page flow. Each report will now also provide the Consultant's name and contact details for any queries or advice

Click here to see a sample report

NEW Pricing

Groundsure have also made changes to the price of their Review report;   

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

HM Land Registry have confirmed that international law firm Bird & Bird LLP were the first law firm to receive a City of London LLC1 result through their new digital Local Land Charges Register. tmgroup are delighted to say that this order was placed via their tmconvey platform – and the result was returned within seconds at precisely 10:14am on Monday 8th October. 

Russell Dellar, partner at international law firm Bird & Bird comments:

“We are delighted to be the first tmconvey customer to receive an LLC1 result from City of London via HM Land Registry’s new digital Local Land Charges Register. At Bird & Bird, we are focused on helping organisations being changed by technology and the digital world. This new innovative platform is certainly something we are keen to promote as well as tmgroup services who we have had a relationship with for many years. The team have never let us down and we look forward to continuing our relationship.”

Paul Albone, Chief Operating Officer at tmgroup comments:

“It’s fantastic to be a part of HM Land Registry’s continuing success with their new digital Local Land Charges register, and we’re pleased to be supporting this new service on tmconvey. tm has a track record of working closely with HMLR on integrated solutions, and we look forward to continuing to work together to deliver further improvements in the future which will help to streamline the conveyancing process even more.”

City of London is the third Local Authority to have their Local Land Charges data digitised, closely following Warwick District Council (11th July) and Liverpool City Council (3rd September), and tmgroup will continue working closely with HM Land Registry throughout the rollout of their new digital Local Land Charges Register.

A further 16 Local Authorities are expected to have their Local Land Charges data digitised across 2018 and 2019, including Stevenage Borough Council, Carlisle City Council, and Peterborough City Council – although exact dates have yet to be announced. 

You can see the full list here.