Sector changes for conveyancers – the good, the bad and the opportunities

The pressure may have eased for conveyancers now the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) holiday has ended. But demand remains high and there’s a real pressure now for conveyancers to get their house in order and to better cope with the house buying demand that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The housing market boom

The pandemic caused an increased focus for people on their homes, which alongside the SDLT holiday of July 2020, led to an overwhelming surge in house sales. The SDLT holiday was brought in to boost the property market and help homebuyers move, and it was so successful it was extended twice beyond its original end date of March 2021, until the end of September 2021.

Pressure for conveyancers

In June 2021 house sales jumped by 220%; the property market boomed and still is booming, with May seeing further growth in average house prices for the fourth month in a row this year. The SDLT holiday enabled 87% of movers to avoid the tax; in this respect, it was a great success. But it was, and to some extent still is, a different story for the conveyancers servicing such a buoyant home-moving market.

“Perfect storm”    

Named a perfect storm for conveyancers, the boom in the property market caused the entire conveyancing system to become completely overloaded, logjammed with sales delayed by months at a time. On every level, conveyancing firms were pushed to their limit, with some even turning work away in order to protect their reputation, fearful of being unable to meet service level expectations and demand.

But, while demand went through the roof, the number of those working in conveyancing went down, due to COVID-19, other pandemic-related issues and stress. There have been stories of conveyancers working through the night, or else quitting to escape the chaos of 2020, with the end result leaving the industry with 20% less people-power to handle what was estimated to be around 300,000 more transactions.

Changes needed in conveyancing

The industry has been forced to cope with the pandemic and then an unprecedented industry boom, with a number of significant changes weathered, many of which are sticking around. Some of these changes demand an urgent change to working practices or new measures to better address and deal with demand. 

Increased hybrid working risks security

Just like many other sectors, hybrid, remote and homeworking have all become the semi-norm and conveyancing is no different. But there’s an impact to be borne out by hybrid working and that’s the risk to compliance when it comes to data and security.

It is much more difficult for firms with conveyancers in hybrid-working situations, to assure the security of the systems and networks they use for holding and transacting personal and sensitive data. The recent cybersecurity breach at Simplify Group has highlighted the need for assurance on data security, as well as client confidentiality, GDPR and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) obligations.

These are issues that high-compliance cloud solutions would address, yet cloud technology take-up is not universal among conveyancers, despite the added security and efficiency of workflow it would offer, not to mention peace of mind.  

Need for consumer-friendly conveyancing

The more user- and consumer-friendly processes there are, the quicker the conveyancing process becomes. Practical measures such as digital signatures and case-management systems with alerts for attention and tracking of the process, via an easy-to-understand dashboard, help everyone.

The conveyancing time doubled during the SDLT holiday. Instead of taking an estimated 24 hours to answer emails, it took an estimated 72 hours. As well as saving time by managing the process, digital technology with user-friendly interfaces aids oversight and reassurance, promoting client goodwill and reducing stress.

Equity-rich home buyers keep the market buoyant

Although house price growth has slowed, it is still in double digits, and a surprisingly high 38% of consumers recently surveyed are “actively moving” or “considering a move”, despite three million more homes in the UK now being in the higher rate SDLT bracket than at the start of the pandemic and the increased pressure on household budgets. What is clear is that the demand from home movers has pushed up house prices, resulting in strong demand from equity-rich homebuyers who are now freed from the pre-pandemic daily commute to look at properties further afield.

Challenges are not over for conveyancers

As the market continues to be very busy, the biggest challenge now for conveyancers is eliminating stress for home movers by making processes quicker and more efficient, and service as responsive as possible. Ultimately, a quicker process means a greater return in fees and more room to be competitive with those fees.

Opportunity to reduce conveyancing times

Our conveyancing products provide the opportunity to help firms streamline processes for clients by reducing conveyancing times and providing policies which are easy for clients to understand and competitively priced. It’s an opportunity well-timed as home movers seek a better service than that experienced by many during the peak of the boom.

Legal issues in the conveyancing process can cause time-consuming correspondence and friction among involved parties. The use of our consumer-friendly indemnities can help to solve these issues so that conveyancers can deliver a less stressful service at a more competitive price. Our policies cover a wide range of conveyancing needs, from Breach of Planning Permission to Missing Documents, and can be quoted in seconds and issued in minutes, all via our user-friendly portal.

Building conveyancing capacity

For conveyancers who want to stay ahead and continue to offer the maximum in service and client delivery, our conveyancing products offer not just a way of enhancing the client-facing offer, but build capacity to deal with the future.