If information about properties was available immediately to all concerned and everything was handled digitally, it could speed up the property market and reduce stress and the risk of failed transactions.

It is more than 20 years since the Land Registration Act 2002 was introduced with the hope that ‘e-conveyancing’, which it enabled in law, would deliver these kinds of benefits. There has been some progress since then but the job of modernising the process has proved more challenging than envisaged and one that no single institution can achieve on its own.

That’s the view of the recently formed coalition of government and industry partners – the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) – representing an important coming together of key industry partners under a shared vision at a pivotal time for the property market.