If you’ve ever bought or sold a house in the UK, you’ve probably uttered the immortal words, “I’m never moving again.” It’s a phrase borne from the overwhelming stress that comes from a property transaction. Moving home is supposed to be exciting but the experience for many is far from that.
One of the main issues is the extended timeline for conveyancing. It currently takes four months for a property sale to progress from being Sold Subject to Contract to a formal exchange. Navigating a property transaction is often a nail-biting wait, as a single deal falling through can cause the whole chain to collapse. A failed mortgage approval or a buyer getting cold feet can quickly bring down what is essentially a house of cards.
The country’s economic health is intrinsically tied to the performance of its property market, where a buoyant housing market often acts as an indicator of broader national stability. For the sake of our economy, it’s essential that we speed up property transactions. The formation of ‘Project 28: A Charter for Faster, More Certain Property Transactions’, is a direct response to this challenge.
The aim of Project 28 is to reduce the time between Sales Agreed to Exchange to just 28 days. In 2024, it took 109 days for a property to go through conveyancing, so it’s an ambitious feat to aim to reduce this to just 28 days, but one that the charter members feel is achievable.
You only need look at how other countries' property markets perform to see how archaic, slow and ultimately broken the UK’s system is. We need to restore trust for buyers and sellers to elevate the property market and put a stop to the fragmented and inefficient system we currently run on.
Let’s take a look at what faster conveyancing timescales mean:
According to this article by The Negotiator, an eye-watering one in three property deals collapsed in 2024. The cost is substantial; for buyers, it’s wasted spend on surveys and searches and for estate agencies it’s wasted marketing spend. What’s more, collectively estate agents and conveyancers lose four million working days thanks to fall throughs. A timescale of four months is simply too long. Life circumstances can shift dramatically in that time. People can lose their job; relationships can break down or financial situations can change. Extended waiting times can also lead to buyers having second thoughts. Speeding up the process will aid in fewer fall throughs and thus a healthier property market.
In 2024, fall throughs cost the wider economy £8.6 billion in 2024, hitting industries that rely on the housing market. Smoother, faster transactions create certainty for buyers and sellers, encouraging more people to move. Higher transaction volumes improve consumer confidence, which in turn drives spending and growth across the broader economy.
Over the years, the regulations and responsibilities heaped on the property lawyer have mounted. Transactions simply take longer to process. Many leave the industry as they do not feel they are adequately rewarded for the job that they do. This has resulted in fewer conveyancers leading to delays in property transactions. In England and Wales alone, the number of conveyancers has fallen by 15% from just over 13,000 to 11,140 between September 2021 and January 2025 according to data from the Law Society.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there’s a real commitment problem: buyers and sellers can walk away from a transaction at any point before exchange. By contrast, in Scotland, where parties commit earlier in the process, transactions typically move faster and with fewer delays.
Often, the conveyancer isn’t instructed until the sale is agreed. If the seller appointed the conveyancer when they list the property for sale, legal files can be prepared in advance and potential issues resolved before a buyer is found.
Buyers often only receive key property information halfway through the process, by which point a negative survey result can derail the transaction entirely. The Negotiator reported that 27.3% of failed transactions occurred because of a poor survey outcome. This shortage of upfront data and transparency is a major driver of delays and fall throughs.
Most property transactions involve a chain where each sale and purchase is dependent on others. Delays or issues cause a ripple effect.
Solicitors, estate agents, mortgage lenders, buyers and sellers are all competing for information, leading to misunderstandings and delays that stall the process. Ultimately, there’s simply not enough data sharing between parties.
The Charter aims to build momentum and make something happen.
Project 28 will be achieved through a Charter agreement that spans lending, conveyancing and estate agents. A working group of 22 of the UK’s leading organisations across the property sector aim to achieve the following eight commitments:
Project 28 calls for visibility of the chain as standard. Chain data needs to be live inside the CRMs, CMSs and tools where transactions are managed. The data must be live and trusted, reflecting the latest reality to ensure trust in the system is always upheld. This can be achieved thanks to ViewMyChain’s technology that can equip CRMs CMSs and legal platforms with tools for real time chain visibility.
The Charter’s combined membership is responsible for:
The companies involved in the Charter are as follows: AConveyancing | Connells |EA Masters | Evolve Law | Holden Smith | HSBC | L&C | Landmark Information Group | Legal & General | Lloyds Banking Group | Mortgage Advice Bureau | Movera | Nationwide | Perry Bishop | Preston Baker | Property Academy | RedBrik | Rightmove | Simplify | Sort Refer | TwentyCi | Yopa
There is a growing appetite for change. The government are leaning in, especially since recent reforms in the planning and housing policy call out for the transaction process issues to be rectified. The slow processes put the government’s housing supply targets at risk. There are standards emerging as ODPA-compliant data protocols, mean platforms can now share key transaction data securely and confidently. There have been many public pushes for faster transactions from groups such as the Home Buying & Selling Group, The Conveyancing Association and lenders’ groups. Every day shaved off the process reduces stress for movers, lowers the risk of fall throughs and strengthens the property market as a whole.