The Government's home buying roadmap is ambitious. The technology to deliver it already exists.

On 18 June 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published what has been referred to as "the biggest shake-up of the homebuying process in a generation." The headline numbers are hard to argue with: the average home purchase now takes around 120 days, 60% longer than in 2007. One in three transactions still falls through, costing consumers roughly £400 million a year and the wider economy up to £1.5 billion. 

Those aren't abstract statistics for conveyancers. They're the calls on a Friday afternoon. The client who's already booked a removal van. The chain that collapses because a search came back too late. 

The Government's roadmap is a genuine attempt to fix the structural problems that cause those moments. For firms that have already invested in digital conveyancing, it reads less like a disruption and more like a confirmation of the direction you've been building toward. 

Here's what the reforms actually mean, and where the real work lies. 

Upfront sales packs: searches move to the start of the transaction 

The centrepiece of the reforms is mandatory sales packs provided at the point of listing. The proposed contents include title documents, seller ID verification, leasehold terms, building safety data, standard search results (flood risk), and property condition reports. 

That last point matters. Under the proposed framework, searches won't be ordered mid-transaction. They'll be part of what the seller provides before a buyer even makes an offer. That's a fundamental shift in the sequence of a conveyancing transaction, and it creates real questions the roadmap hasn't yet answered. 

The most immediate is validity. Searches carry a practical lifespan of around six months, driven by lender requirements rather than statute. If a property takes eighteen months or two years to sell, those searches will expire before any lender will accept them. Search validation insurance exists as a workaround, covering an expired result without requiring a full re-order. But insurance on a stale search is not the same as a current one, and asking a buyer to rely on expired data plus a policy rather than fresh results is not obviously in their interest. The roadmap acknowledges the problem directly, committing to guidance on "how and when data such as search information needs refreshing" before legislation lands. That guidance hasn't been written yet. Until it is, who pays for refreshes, how often they're triggered, and whether lenders will formally accept seller-commissioned searches at all remain open questions. 

The second question is commercial. Under the current model, the buyer's conveyancer orders and charges for searches as a disbursement. Under the new model, that work and that revenue moves to the seller's conveyancer. For firms structured around high buyer-side volumes, this is a real business model shift. And if lenders are slow to confirm acceptance of seller-commissioned searches, buyer-side conveyancers may feel professionally obligated to re-order independently, meaning higher total search costs per transaction during the transition, not lower. 

None of this means the policy direction is wrong. The conveyancers who opposed including searches in the pack and the condition report (38% of respondents in the consultation, against 28% who backed it) raised these exact concerns during the process, and the Government pressed ahead with a stated intent to resolve them through further industry engagement. The case for moving search data earlier in the transaction is strong: it removes one of the most common causes of late-stage collapse. But the practical framework, including validity rules, the refresh mechanism, and lender sign-off, still needs to be built. 

For firms thinking about preparation, the most useful question isn't whether the model will change. It's whether your search ordering capability is digital, fast, and CMS-integrated. When packs need refreshing at speed, firms with manual processes will feel that pressure most acutely. 

Digital identity, eSignatures and AI: the Government put it in writing 

One section of the roadmap will have been particularly welcome reading for anyone who has spent the last few years explaining to clients why digital ID verification is better than certified paper copies. 

The Government has explicitly backed digital identity checks, electronic signatures and AI-assisted conveyancing as the tools that will "strip out duplication, reduce fraud risk and accelerate transactions from start to finish." It has also committed to reducing duplicate AML checks across the chain, recognising that asking the same client to verify their identity three times for a single transaction is not a compliance requirement, it's an inefficiency. 

There is also a Smart Data scheme in development, which will enable secure sharing of verified property data between organisations and trusted third parties at the customer's request. A client verifies once, and that information travels with the transaction rather than being collected again at every stage. 

For firms still running paper-based onboarding or manual ID processes, this is the clearest possible signal that the direction is set. 

The AI Growth Lab: conveyancing is explicitly in scope 

One announcement that has received less attention than it deserves: the Government's AI Growth Lab has legal services and conveyancing as its first focus area, with applications opening for law tech and conveyancing firms this summer. 

This matters because it reflects a genuine policy commitment to the sector. The Government is investing in standards for AI in conveyancing and expanding HMLR's API services, which will make programmatic, data-driven post-completion workflows more viable. 

What the roadmap describes is exactly the kind of AI that should be in conveyancing: consistent, explainable, and human-in-the-loop. Not AI that generates outputs and hopes for the best, but AI that reads documents, applies expert-built rules, and puts a verified result in front of the conveyancer to review and approve. That distinction matters, and it's good to see Government policy reflect it. 

At InfoTrack, AI isn't a separate product or something bolted on after the fact. It's woven through the platform: reading documents at scale, routing queries, automating search workflow resolution, and generating enquiries through a rules engine built by conveyancers for conveyancers. The platform processes over 40,000 documents a day at 98%+ accuracy, in single-digit seconds per document. That's not a future capability. It's what's running today, across every transaction. 

What firms should actually be doing right now 

Much of the commentary on the reforms has focused on reassurance: no immediate mandatory changes, legislation at the end of Parliament, time to prepare. That's fair. But "no immediate mandatory changes" isn't the same as "no action needed." 

The firms that will benefit most are the ones whose workflows already reflect where the market is going. And that means workflows with AI built in, not bolted on, but embedded at the points where it changes what conveyancers can actually do. 

Put AI in your workflow, not just on your radar. The roadmap explicitly backs AI-assisted conveyancing. But there's a meaningful difference between a generic AI tool and one that is purpose-built for conveyancing, governed by expert rules, and integrated into the transaction from the start. The right kind reads documents, surfaces what matters, and puts the conveyancer in control of a clear, actionable picture. That distinction carries professional and practical weight. 

Start every matter with AI Document Review. As the transaction model shifts, getting on top of a matter quickly becomes more valuable. Document Review analyses the full contract pack at the point of instruction: title registers, contracts, TA forms, leases, and supporting documents. It surfaces problems before they compound, flags what needs attention and what doesn't, and identifies the relevant next steps, whether that's raising an enquiry, ordering additional searches, or checking lender criteria, without leaving the platform. Think of it as a GPS for the transaction: it maps the road ahead, flags the hazards, and shows exactly what needs to be done to reach a safe completion. Running it at the start also means matters can be priced and routed before significant time has been invested in a file that turns out to be more complex than it appeared. 

Review your onboarding process. If client onboarding still involves paper ID, manual data entry, or separate systems for AML and form collection, the reforms will create pressure to change. The better time to address it is now. 

Think about upfront search ordering. The sales pack model is built on searches being available at listing. Firms that can order searches digitally and with results that feed directly into their CMS will be far better placed for the early-instruction model the Government is creating. 

Start with eSignatures where you legally can, and be ready for when lenders catch up. The Government has backed electronic signatures explicitly, and QES are already in use across parts of the transaction: client care letters, TA forms, contract of sale, reports on title. But for residential conveyancing, the meaningful blocker remains lender acceptance of electronically signed mortgage deeds. Until that changes, fully digital deed execution isn't practical across the board. The groundwork to lay now is getting eSignatures embedded in every part of the transaction where they're already valid, so the workflow is there when the remaining barrier falls. 

Get your digital ID process right now, ahead of the regulatory change. The Government has committed to reducing duplicate AML checks, but that requires legal and regulatory change. Until it happens, firms remain obligated to conduct their own identity and AML checks. What you can do now is make sure those checks are digital, fast, and defensible. When the legislation does arrive, firms with a mature digital ID process will be positioned to take advantage of it. Those still running paper-based checks will have a bigger gap to close. 

The infrastructure already exists 

The reforms the Government has outlined aren't waiting for technology that hasn't been built yet. Digital client onboarding, biometric identity verification, upfront search ordering, digital SDLT and AP1 submissions, CMS-integrated workflows, eSignatures: all of this exists, and it's working in firms across England and Wales today. 

InfoTrack is the only UK end-to-end conveyancing platform with AI built into it. Not a separate AI product, not AI bolted on, AI woven through every step of the transaction, from the moment a client is onboarded to the moment a matter completes at HMLR. Over a decade of conveyancing infrastructure, now transformed by AI that is platform-first, rules-governed and always accountable to the conveyancer. 

The roadmap the Government published describes, in policy terms, the future that digital conveyancing has been building toward in practical terms for years. 

The question for every conveyancing firm right now isn't whether to prepare. It's whether the systems you're running today are the ones you want to be running when preparation becomes a requirement. 

If you'd like to see how InfoTrack's platform maps to the reforms set out in the roadmap, speak to one of our team.