Yesterday, Santander gathered senior industry, government and technology leaders at One Great George Street for its ‘Fixing the Broken Chain’ panel 2025, aiming to dissect the failures of the current homebuying process and explore the reforms needed to modernise it.
The session was chaired by freelance property journalist Samantha Partington, who noted that the stress of buying a home remains one of the most universal experiences in the UK.
The event brought together three figures at the heart of the reform conversation: David Morris, head of homes at Santander UK; Head of Homes, Santander UK, Victoria Latham, deputy director for housing, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and chair of the Digital Property Market Steering Group and Angela Hesketh, board member at Open Data Property Association and head of market development (UK) at PEXA.
To begin, Hesketh noted that the homebuying process has deteriorated significantly over the past three decades, moving from a “trusted, very effective process” to one that is “completely fragmented” and affected by duplication, fraud and lack of interconnectivity. She said many consumers finish the process determined not to repeat it, noting: “For most people this is the key financial transaction of their lives […] yet they come out of it thinking, ‘I don’t want to do that ever, ever again.’”
Latham described home ownership as a unifying issue across the UK and said reform presented “a massive opportunity,” adding: “There are few more unifying forces in British society than home ownership. Whether you can’t get into it, you’re in it and you’re annoyed about it, or you’ve just bought a house, which was invariably incredibly stressful.” She also emphasised the value of her department’s ongoing consultations, which she called an “important milestone.”
Morris highlighted findings from Santander’s research, including that more than a quarter of transactions fail and that over half of buyers report ongoing stress. He said: “We know there’s a huge expectation gap, and we also know that if we were to change this, maybe nine in 10 customers would think about moving more regularly and would see the process more positively.”
Citing data from the ‘Fixing the Broken Chain’ report, he linked the £1.5bn annual cost of failed transactions to wasted productivity, legal work and stalled housing mobility. According to Morris, improvements to certainty and transparency could also reduce lenders’ costs, as assumptions around transaction failure could impact lending criteria.
On digital barriers, Hesketh pointed to fragmented data held across Local Authorities and other bodies, much of it still on paper or not digitised to a usable standard. She said safe and verified sharing of information, financial security and reducing fraud were key considerations, particualry with an estimated £11.7m in conveyancing-related losses last year.
She said: “We’ve got a lot of data sat in various different places that isn’t digitised, or isn’t digitised to a level we’d be able to easily share.”
Asked whether faster timeframes should be the priority, Hesketh said certainty mattered more than speed. Buyers, she said, need clarity on when they will move, with current processes leaving people “on hold for an indefinite period of time.”
She added: “It shouldn’t be dictated that it has to be in four weeks or two weeks. It’s about what suits that group of people.”
When questioned about the role of the Government, Latham said the focus on upfront information remains central, placing accountability on both buyers and sellers. She stressed the importance of sequencing reforms correctly and said the ongoing consultation is intended to determine which interventions should come first.
Emphasising the importance of upfront information, she said that Government aims to consider “consumer understanding, consumer receptivity, and consumer inclination to accept the change.”
Funding for digitisation was also discussed. Morris said he believed private enterprise could drive development, but that the Government and regulators would need to set standards and initiate the process.
Indeed, Hesketh said industry is already developing digital solutions but requires government commitment to digitising the data it holds.
International comparisons were also raised, including that of the homebuying structures in Australia, Estonia and Norway.
Latham cautioned that systems cannot simply be transplanted, noting: “I’m fascinated to understand what it is about those systems that works better. But I’m not entirely sure we should pick up the Australian system or the Norwegian system and put it down in Cornwall or in Manchester and say, ‘Right, well, that’s how it works now.’”
“The British relationship with property is nuanced and fairly individual. I love the international comparisons, but we don’t live in Norway, and we don’t live in Australia.”
However, Hesketh also stressed the value in studying others. Australia’s leap from paper cheques to digital settlement, she argued, shows what is possible when a government commits to a unified approach.
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” she said.
“We need to understand what works and adapt it.”
