We recently conducted research into the experience of thousands of homeowners across the country, and the results reveal alarming trends that impact the whole property industry.
Our survey of 2,000 people, found that a quarter (24%) of UK homeowners have wanted to sell their home but decided not to as they thought the process would be too long and stressful.
This has resulted in a staggering £1.4 trillion worth of property being left off the market in the last ten years. This means that processes throughout the industry have not only caused unpleasant experiences for customers, but been detrimental to business.
You can read more about the findings in the Financial Times Adviser
The frustration associated with buying or selling a home is so extreme that it’s been rated as the most stressful experience in modern life, above a relationship break-up, divorce and being made redundant. Surely, this exciting life event shouldn’t be perceived in such a negative light? With the launch of our new platform, we wanted to understand why the process of moving home has such a bad reputation, so that as an industry we can can change how we do things and profit from working better together.
According to our survey, the most stressful aspects are dealing with slow solicitors, in addition to the risk of it all falling through and the huge sums of money at stake. Much of the stress of the process stems from the inefficiency of the paper trails and manual chase-ups involved in the legal proceedings which has left the property chain remarkably offline when everywhere else digital processes have become the norm.
In a time when first time buyers find it increasingly difficult to get onto the property ladder, so-called ‘second steppers’ are also finding it hard to make the move from starter homes to a larger, family property due to the disparity in house and flat prices, The Telegraph recently reported. In order to prevent the property market from becoming stagnant, the process should be made as easy and stress-free as possible to encourage people to move when they want to.
But as our CEO, Simon Bath, highlighted: “It’s not just the end client who is feeling the effect of the lack of technology in the industry; conveyancers are prevented from progression by the limited and antiquated processes.”
“There is a large number of excellent conveyancing firms executing their vital role in the process, inhibited by lack of efficient technology and infrastructure to ensure the process is truly efficient.”
Here at When You Move, we’ve just launched the UK’s first proptech platform to automate the end-to-end process of conveyancing. It’s one integrated platform to progress sales and purchases, with visibility for all parties involved: estate agents, mortgage brokers, conveyancers and the end client. Not only will the platform help to significantly speed up the process to drive parties through to completion, but the ability to track cases in real time will help the 58% of homebuyers who deem the process stressful and opaque.
By addressing the antiquated process with an end-to-end, automated system we hope to alleviate the overly-stressful home-buying experience, which is currently damaging the UK property market. We’ve already partnered with some of the UK’s most respected legal partners specialising in residential conveyancing, including Leadenhall Law Group, Gordons Property Lawyers, and Right Choice Conveyancing. You can request a demo of When You Move to see how it could benefit your business here.