Upfront data in property transactions: Is it finally becoming a reality?
The last 12 months has seen a revival in the conversation surrounding upfront information (UFI). Of course, the idea of upfront data is nothing new. How many of you remember Home Information Packs (HIPs)? The original idea, conceived in Labour’s manifesto back in 1997, proposed to address the problem of gazumping. HIPs were officially launched in August 2007 and although the concept was a good one, the scheme was scrapped in May 2010 for a number of different reasons.
So how has 2023 moved the situation forwards? The predominant difference in the last 12 months is that we have seen a considerable rise in the number of inbound enquiries about how we can make this shift to UFI real. Those who previously were not involved in the conversation are being brought in as the direction of travel becomes clear. We also can now show how clients already using these methods are seeing significant real benefits.
Certainly, as a company, we are leading several changes to making trusted and more fulsome data available and connecting everyone who needs it. We are only here to really do one thing: we would like our clients’ customers to like buying and selling houses far more than they might ever have in the past. To make this happen, we want to share more data, earlier, with our clients so that they can advise and support their customers in a far better process.
We encourage businesses to consider how and when they’re going to use upfront information in the future. As a starting point, companies can ensure their systems are able to accommodate these changes by starting to plan and build new cross industry collaborations into their workflows.
If you’d like to learn more,we have compiled a quick video that explains more about upfront data.