All property listings will have to include full details on the property’s price, council tax band and tenure from May this year, in a major shake-up of the home buying process. 

The National Trading Standards and Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) want to improve the upfront information available to buyers in the conveyancing process.

Given these changes, data fields for this information will start to appear on homebuying portals in the coming months. 

Residential property lawyers Irwin Mitchell warns that this is the first stage of “major changes” designed to improve the information available to both buyers and renters. It says the changes in May are just the first phase of a three-step project by the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (NTSELAT), in conjunction with UK’s major property portals and wider mortgage industry to define what constitutes as “material information” in these online listings. 

Two further phases are being developed, which will incorporate further information, such as restrictive covenants, flood risk and other specific factors that may impact certain properties.

As the new data fields for tenure, price and council tax are added to portals, those left empty by an agent will be flagged on the listing, so that consumers can see what  is missing. This will link to advice on why that information is important and how it may be obtained.

National Trading Standards wants all material information to be mandatory on property listings once all three phases of the project are complete. At that stage, agents will need to include all the required information before it is listed on a property portal.

In addition, the CMA has also been working to improve how the leasehold market works for consumers. It is investigating and has acted against potential breaches of consumer protection law in the leasehold housing market, including unfair contract terms in leases, as well as broader allegations of mis-selling of leasehold property. 

The CMA has also stressed the importance of people being  fully aware of the annual costs of owning a home before they buy, and that clearer upfront information is needed when properties are sold.

Irwin Mitchell, head of residential property Jeremy Raj says: “The more alert parts of the industry have known this was coming for some time, but it is fair to say that some will struggle to adapt and we are looking at a significant shift in the home buying and selling process.

“Until now many people making an offer on a house or flat have been woefully uninformed and had to hope that the conveyancing/survey process wouldn’t reveal anything that would cause them to change their minds about whether to proceed — or whether the price they offered was correct. The potential for wasted time, money and emotional cost has been a flaw in the system since inception.This first step will go some way towards redressing this.”

However he adds that it remains to be seen how much of the up-front information in the second and third phases the public will actually want to see, or be able to evaluate themselves. He warns that agents and conveyancers will need to take real care when supplying or explaining the information.

He adds: “Many in the industry will be scrambling to get themselves up to speed with the new requirements, which in the second and third phases will become quite onerous and will involve a dramatic change in the timing of information gathering and presentation. 

“Another question is how widely this will be policed, and to what extent – enforcement by way of unlimited fines and a prison sentence of up to two years are likely to sharpen people’s focus and compliance rather quickly.”