The Home Buying Reform Roadmap: What Estate Agents Need to Know
The June 2026 roadmap plans sales packs before listing, a code of practice for agents and binding contracts. What changes for estate agents, and when.
Key takeaways
- The government published its home buying and selling reform roadmap in June 2026, its response to the 2025 consultations on home buying and selling and on material information.
- Sales packs, including searches and a property condition report, will be required before a property is listed, once legislation passes, with the seller responsible for the pack.
- Later in 2026: non-statutory material information guidance with a standardised form, and a code of practice setting minimum standards for property agents.
- From 2027: a consultation on mandatory qualifications for estate agents, and sales packs and digital logbooks required in government home ownership schemes.
- Binding conditional contracts will follow, but only once sales packs are established.
- None of it changes what agents must do today, and agents who offer upfront searches now are already doing what the sales pack will require.
In June 2026, the government published its home buying and selling reform roadmap, its response to the 2025 consultations on home buying and selling and on material information in property listings. It sets out how the government wants homes to be bought and sold by the end of this Parliament, and several of the changes start with the estate agent.
This article sets out what the roadmap says, when each change is due, and what agents can do now. We will update it as the guidance and legislation arrive.
Why the government wants change
The government's own figures: the average purchase takes around 120 days, one in three sales falls through, and failed sales cost sellers around £400 million a year. It expects the reforms to cut around four weeks from a typical purchase, and to save first-time buyers an average of £650.
Sales packs before listing
At the centre of the roadmap is a standardised sales pack, prepared before a property is listed. The roadmap expects it to include:
- Standard search results: local authority, drainage and water, environmental, and local risks such as mining or chalk.
- A property condition report.
- Other information a buyer needs at the start, such as leasehold costs and the state of the chain.
The seller keeps overall responsibility for the pack. Conveyancers gather and check the legal and title information, and surveyors report on the condition. The roadmap says the details are subject to change and will be confirmed before the legislation, which will come when parliamentary time allows.
What happens later in 2026
- Material information guidance. Non-statutory guidance, with a standardised form, on what property listings should include and the consequences of not complying.
- A code of practice for property agents. Minimum standards, with the government considering legislation to make them enforceable.
- Voluntary sales pack information. Work with the industry on the information sellers can provide upfront now, ahead of the law.
As of November 2026, the guidance and the code of practice had not been published.
From 2027
- 2027: agent qualifications. A consultation on mandatory qualifications for estate agents, with legislation depending on the outcome.
- 2027: government home ownership schemes. Sales packs and digital property logbooks required in the government's own schemes.
- By 2028: local land charges. The Local Land Charges programme, which moves councils' land charges registers to one digital register, completed.
- When parliamentary time allows. Legislation to require sales packs and digital logbooks, and then binding conditional contracts once sales packs are established.
Binding contracts and reservation agreements
Binding conditional contracts would stop a buyer or seller walking away months into a sale without a legitimate reason, with a possible financial penalty for doing so. They come only after sales packs are established. In the meantime, the government will promote voluntary reservation agreements.
What estate agents can do now
- Keep to the material information duty. It applies today, under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. See material information for estate agents.
- Offer upfront searches. Ordering searches when the seller instructs you is voluntary now, and it is what the sales pack will require. See upfront searches and sales packs.
- Watch for the guidance and the code of practice, and check your listings and terms against them when they arrive.
- Prepare for qualifications, with the consultation due in 2027.
How Casera helps estate agents
Casera provides property searches to conveyancers, and to estate agents who want them in place before a property is listed. Your agency orders the searches from its own account and recharges the seller. Our local authority searches are regulated searches, and their Stewart Title indemnity covers the buyer and their lender, whoever ordered them. If the sale takes longer than six months, we refresh the searches free of charge.
Frequently asked questions
When do sales packs become mandatory?
When legislation is passed. The roadmap commits to legislating when parliamentary time allows, with the aim of a working system by the end of this Parliament. No bill had been introduced as of November 2026.
Will estate agents have to provide searches?
The sales pack will include searches, and the roadmap makes the seller responsible for preparing it. In practice, many sellers will look to their agent to arrange them, as some agents already do.
Has the new material information guidance been published?
Not as of November 2026. The roadmap says it will be published later in 2026, with a standardised form. Until then, the duty under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 applies, and the withdrawn Parts A, B and C are a sensible checklist.
What is a binding conditional contract?
An agreement, made earlier in a sale than exchange is today, that stops the buyer or seller walking away without a legitimate reason, with a possible financial penalty. The roadmap plans them only once sales packs are established.
Will estate agents need qualifications?
The government will consult on mandatory qualifications for estate agents in 2027, and legislate depending on the outcome.
