Simplifying and speeding up an arduous homebuying journey

We are now in the midst of a season which has traditionally kick-started purchase activity across the housing market. Although there has been little in the way of ‘traditional’ circumstances in recent times and any seasonal trends have largely been bucked over the past few years as the stamp duty holiday and pent up demand fuelled almost non-stop purchase activity. Increased activity levels which placed huge amounts of pressure on lenders, surveyors, conveyancers and the adviser community.

It's no secret that we are currently operating in a somewhat different housing and mortgage market to pre, during and post pandemic conditions. Not that it’s all doom and gloom. According to the Zoopla House Price Index for May 2023, we are seeing a steady and sustained recovery in buyer demand and continued growth in the number of agreed property sales. House price growth may be slowing but the Index pointed out that any major price re-correction is now very unlikely.

In more positive news, demand from buyers was reported to have reached its highest level this year after the Easter break and is 14% higher than in 2019, but still 42% down on this time last year. The number of homes for sale continues to rise and is now 66% higher than a year ago. This is boosting choice for buyers, driving 6% more agreed sales than in 2019 which is in line with the five-year average.

The housing market remains on track for 500,000 sales in the first half of 2023 and the resilience of homebuyers in the face of higher mortgage rates has been impressive. First-time buyers have typified this resilience. Zoopla estimates that first-time buyers using a mortgage accounted for over 1 in 3 sales last year (34%). This made them the largest group of home buyers, followed by existing home owners using a mortgage (31%) and cash buyers (25%).

The many challenges facing first-time buyers are evident from an affordability perspective, so it’s great to see some highly encouraging data emerge around this vital band of borrowers. However, it’s not only affordability which needs to improve to help make the homebuyer journey smoother and simpler for them.

We continue to operate in a largely inefficient and often disconnected homebuying process. Improvements have been made from a tech standpoint over the course of the pandemic and these enhancements have greatly improved some individual elements for buyer and sellers. But, and there was always going to be a but here, we are desperately in need of greater collaboration and a more collective approach to vastly improve the average length of completions as they are still way too high.

Aside from this collaborative approach, individual businesses within different sectors have to take a long hard look at our processes, our partnerships and our affiliations to see what we could do better from a customer outcome and our role in the homebuying journey.

This isn’t an overnight process but the pandemic really did demonstrate how the industry can pull together when our backs are against the wall, how technology can propel us forward and how we can make things happen when we really need to. So, let’s build on this momentum to forge a more collaborative and transparent approach across the industry to simplify and speed up an archaic and overly arduous homebuying journey for all potential buyers.