Home buying and selling reform 2026

You may have seen recently in the news that the Government are proposing big changes to the conveyancing process.

On average moving home in England currently takes around 120 days from an accepted offer to completion; a process that has grown roughly 60% longer since 2007. Worse, a significant proportion of these transactions never make it to completion at all. On 19 June 2026, the government published its long-awaited Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, setting out how it intends to fix a system that, for too many people, turns one of life’s biggest decisions into a drawn-out test of patience.

The five key reforms

The Roadmap sets out five reforms that will reshape the process for buyers, sellers and the professionals who advise them.

1. Upfront sales packs
   One of the most significant reforms is the move towards a mandatory “sales pack” prepared before a property is even listed. The pack will include searches and a property condition report, ensuring prospective buyers have access to comprehensive information before making an offer rather than discovering issues later in the transaction. The packs are expected to cover tenure type, council tax band, EPC rating, title information, leasehold or estate charges, building safety information, standard search results, a tailored condition assessment, accessibility information, chain status and a floor plan. The legislation around this is to follow, it is encouraged to start providing this information voluntarily now.
2. Binding conditional contracts
   Once sales packs are embedded, the government intends to legislate for contracts that bind parties earlier in the process. The aim of this is to tackle the ease with which parties can currently withdraw without good reason after others have already incurred costs. From 2027, the details such as including penalty fees and exceptions for legitimate withdrawal, such as illness or a chain collapsing will be worked through. These binding contracts will only take effect after the upfront information reforms are in place.
3. A new Code of Practice for agents
   Later this year, A non-statutory Code of Practice, is to be published which will set minimum standards of conduct for property agents. The government will also consult on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents in 2027, with legislation to follow if the consultation supports it.
4. Digital property logbooks and data sharing
   The reforms place significant weight on digitalisation. Digital property logbooks and sales packs are intended to become a standard, feature of transactions, supported by a future regulatory framework governing how data is stored, shared and protected. This is intended to reduce duplicated anti-money laundering checks and allow trusted information to move securely between conveyancers, agents, lenders and surveyors.
5. Leasehold and freehold estate sales information
   For leaseholders and homeowners on privately managed estates, the roadmap addresses a long-standing source of delay: freeholders, managing agents and estate managers who can take too long to provide the information needed to sell a property, and who can charge excessive amounts for it. Using existing powers under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, the government will consult next year on secondary legislation to cap both fees and response times for this information.

So when will this actually happen?

We are all eager for these reforms to come into place however they will not arrive at once. In 2026, the government will publish non-statutory guidance on property listings, identify which sales pack information can be provided voluntarily ahead of legislation, publish the Code of Practice for property agents, and begin work to support training and skills development across the sector. Between 2027 and 2028, it intends to publish an advisory Charter for property professionals, consult on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents, consult on the leasehold and freehold estates sales information legislation, and work with industry to define a penalty structure for binding contracts. The most significant changes such as requiring sales packs before listing, mandating binding conditional contracts, and making digital sales packs and logbooks standard will depend on primary legislation.

What this means for you

In practical terms, this means current transactions, contracts and obligations remain entirely unchanged for now, and clients should not expect any of these measures to have legal force in the near term. However, it is worth understanding the direction of travel. In time, buyers will be able to access a comprehensive sales pack for any property they consider buying, and sellers will know exactly what information they need to provide and when. The intention is that sales will be less likely to fall through because buyers will be making informed decisions from the outset, and that contracts will secure each party’s commitment to proceed while still allowing withdrawal for legitimate reasons.

Our view

At CBG, we welcome the broad direction of these reforms. The current system’s reliance on late-surfacing information is, in our experience, the single biggest driver of collapsed chains, and a properly implemented sales pack should go a long way toward addressing that. That said, we share some of the caution expressed by conveyancers and surveyors during the consultation. Comprehensive upfront information is only useful if it stays reliable throughout the transaction, and questions around how search results are refreshed, how lenders treat older data, and how liability sits between sellers, agents and professionals will need careful resolution before binding contracts can fairly follow.

In the meantime, our advice to clients is straightforward; don’t wait for legislation. Until this is law, clients can still reduce their own risk of a fall-through by instructing us early and obtaining searches and a condition report voluntarily, rather than waiting for the obligation to arrive.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about how these reforms might affect a current or upcoming property transaction, or would like advice on protecting your position in the meantime, our residential property team would be happy to help. Please contact Poonam Shah via email: ps@cbglaw.co.uk or telephone on: +44 (0)7467 863154 or Krishanka Tharmarajah via email: kxt@cbglaw.co.uk or telephone on: +44 (0)7386 679857