Open Property Coalition moves to testing phase with lender backing
The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has moved to the next phase of its Open Property Coalition as it begins testing recommendations put forward by members.
The Coalition consists of organisations from across the homebuying sector to accelerate progress towards a more digital property market. Its latest step is moving from developing recommendations to testing practical approaches for wider adoption.
Participants include HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group, LMS, NatWest, OneID, PEXA, the Conveyancing Information Executive (CIE), Connells Group, Council of Property Search Organisations (COPSO), Groundsure, and TM Group.
Travis Scholes, commercial director at LMS, said: “The opportunity now is to connect the organisations, expertise and infrastructure needed to drive adoption at scale. The challenge is no longer proving what is possible, but creating the alignment needed to make it the norm.”
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Land Registry and the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) will be listening to the views of participants and monitoring the Coalition’s progress.
Members will test real-world use cases, explore how existing standards and systems can work together, and identify the practical requirements for an interoperable property ecosystem.
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CFIT said the Coalition would support wider industry and government efforts to modernise the homebuying and selling process.
It will work alongside the DPMSG, which oversees the sector’s contribution to the digital elements of the government’s Home Buying and Selling Reform programme.
Brad Fordham, head of mortgage distribution and underwriting at NatWest, said: “Lenders rely on trusted information from across the property ecosystem, so there is a significant opportunity to use Smart Data and digital technology to make that information easier to verify and share securely.
“Open Property brings together the organisations needed to explore how that can work across the whole transaction, rather than improving individual stages in isolation.”
