PEXA, the fintech behind the world’s first digital property exchange process, announces the launch of the Future Property Transactions Group.
Initially focused on West Yorkshire, the new pilot working group initiative brings together stakeholders from across the market to accelerate the transformation and improvement of the UK home buying and selling process, which is widely acknowledged to have siloed back-end infrastructure that hinders efficiency for all parties, resulting in delays and customer frustrations.
The Group will drive collaboration between key property market stakeholders in the region such as PEXA, Leeds Building Society, Legal & General, West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Mortgage Advice Bureau, and Arch Law, as well as the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), to help make the property transaction process more efficient and seamless for all.
Hosting its inaugural meeting as part of Leeds Digital Festival, the initiative, supported by Whitecap Consulting, has an initial focus on West Yorkshire, an area that punches above its weight with the expertise it has in the property market. It will leverage the region’s key strengths across the financial, legal and property sectors to showcase the benefits of widespread, efficient collaboration across the board. The data and technology integration this can bring will drive enhanced efficiency, significant cost and time savings, improved customer experience and a reduced risk of fraud. As such it will establish a regional proof point for a solution to a national problem, with ambitions to collect the quantitative and qualitative data required to prove the need for a wider, country wide roll out.
Joe Pepper, PEXA UK Chief Executive Officer, said: “PEXA’s mission is to help address the current issues within the property market. Transactions are often inefficient because of the siloed nature of each stage of the journey and, with an overarching view of the process and the proven ability to develop and implement technology to help drive change, we are in a prime position to help bring all stakeholders together and enable better collaboration to ease the issues being faced across the board. The launch of the Future Property Transaction Group supports this aim and we are excited to see the results it delivers for all.”
Richard Fearon, Chief Executive of Leeds Building Society, said: “At Leeds, our purpose is to put homeownership within reach of more people, generation after generation. We of course achieve that through our mortgage lending and challenging the structural unfairness within the housing market, but also by making buying a home as easy as possible. We welcome the launch of this group and look forward to working closely with others to create a quicker and simpler process that our members could benefit from.”
Maria Harris, Chair of the Open Property Data Association, commented: “The Future Property Transaction Group perfectly embodies the aims of the OPDA. We set up the Association to enable the open exchange of property related data to improve the house buying and remortgaging journey. Collaboration and communication between all parties is clearly key in making this a reality, and the Group will facilitate this perfectly. We are pleased to be working hand in hand with PEXA on this initiative, with the evidence from the pilot in West Yorkshire likely to go a long way in driving change on a national level too.”
Following the inaugural meeting, the group will convene again over the coming weeks, with further organisations expected to participate as the initiative gathers momentum.
