Some of the industry’s leading proptech firms and software developers have collaborated in a series of ‘hackathons’ designed to test how property data can be shared seamlessly across the home-moving process.
The hackathons, hosted by The Open Property Data Association (OPDA) and the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG), have seen firms collaborating in real-time within the Smart Property Data Trust Framework sandbox.
Each of the hackathons looked at different stages of the home-moving journey, including property packs, ID verification, AML and fraud, as well as the completion stage. Firms taking part included Smoove (part of PEXA UK), PropXchain, ViewMyChain, Sprift and Property Deals Insight.
Participants successfully connected to the sandbox and demonstrated how trusted property data can be accessed and used across platforms. Smoove and PropXchain retrieved material information and property pack data, with Smoove integrating it directly into its DigitalMove platform.
Marc Hatton, Director at PropXchain, said: “The sandbox lets a three-person startup plug into the same property data rails as major institutions. That’s the power of an open framework – it levels the playing field. Within the first morning, we had an end-to-end property pack flowing through our stack. That speed comes from data you can trust.”
Christian Woodhouse, Head of Partnerships at Sprift, added: “The hackathon proved something we’ve long believed: the data exists, the technology exists, and with the right framework, things move fast. What struck us most was how quickly participants could demonstrate real, end-to-end data flows.
Not in theory, but in a live environment. The Trust Framework gives the industry the infrastructure to stop treating property data as a series of isolated requests and start treating it as a shared, trusted resource. That shift is what will finally make transactions faster and less painful for everyone involved.”
Alongside the technical work, the hackathon also surfaced key challenges around building a shared data ecosystem, including consent, liability, governance and the need for a consistent Property ID.
Nitin Aggarwal, CEO and Founder of Property Deals Insight, said: “The UK property market does not lack data; the problem is that critical information is fragmented, duplicated and often discovered too late. The value of the OPDA sandbox is that it brings the industry together to test how trusted property data can actually be used in real workflows.”
Renu Kiran, Operations Director at ViewMyChain, added: “This is about proving interoperability, not just agreeing it’s a good idea. The sandbox shows whether data can actually flow across the transaction as it should.”
Maria Harris, Chair of the OPDA, said: “This is a critical step forward for the industry. For too long, property transactions have been held back by fragmented data and manual processes. What we’re seeing through these hackathons is the industry coming together to test practical solutions that can make home moving faster, more transparent and less stressful for consumers. The ambition is simple: capture property data once, trust it, and reuse it. That has the potential to transform the entire transaction.”
The Smart Property Data Trust Framework sandbox is a government-backed initiative designed to create a safe, controlled environment where organisations can securely share property data.
Funded by a £742,700 award from the Government’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund, the 12-month project is being delivered by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) in partnership with the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), with support from Raidiam, data from HM Land Registry and oversight from the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG).
Findings from the project will be shared openly to help the industry understand what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to change.
For more information on OPDA, you can visit: https://openpropdata.org.uk/.
