House hunters will find it easier to discover essentials about homes upfront

The key information appearing on property listings will be improved under an initiative to make it easier for house hunters to find out the essentials upfront about a home they are interested in.

National Trading Standards, which launched the project previously, said information under its first phase should be included by the end of May or be flagged as absent.

It said a property’s council tax band or rate and tenure information for sales must be included on property listings along with the house price.

Experts suggested that having more transparent information upfront could help reduce cases of house sales falling through, in turn helping buyers to avoid wasting their cash.

It could also help to speed up sales.

National Trading Standards said its work has been supported by the likes of OnTheMarket, Rightmove and Zoopla.

Northern Ireland’s PropertyPal is another portal piloting the project in advance of its wider adoption across the UK, those behind the initiative said.

As the required information is added by portals, if some aspects are left empty by an agent, this will be flagged on the listing so buyers can see what information is missing.

This will link to advice on why that information is important and how it may be obtained.

A further two phases of the project, which will incorporate further material information such as restrictive covenants, flood risk and other factors that may affect certain properties, are also being developed.

James Munro, senior manager of the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team, said: “This represents an important milestone in the journey to improve material information on property listings.

“I’m delighted with the progress that has been made with the industry to help define and clarify what constitutes material information and I am grateful to the property portals and other industry leaders who have supported this work.”

David Cox, Rightmove’s legal and compliance director, said: “It’s been really encouraging to see that more than 80% of all property listings on Rightmove now include the tenure of a property, up from 70% last year before we started to encourage more agents to add this information to help with National Trading Standard’s initiative.

“We hope that having an industry-agreed official list of material information will better help agents know exactly all the info they need to add when they’re advertising properties.”

Jason Tebb, chief executive officer (CEO) of OnTheMarket, said: “We are already working on ways to enhance the properties on our site with more material information and we share the view that more transparency throughout a property transaction could lead to a smoother process for estate agents, buyers and sellers.”

Mairead Carroll, senior specialist, land and property standards at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said: “Providing more upfront and transparent data between market participants across the whole buying, selling and conveyancing process, coupled with a home survey, means buyers are able to make more informed offers, reducing the time taken for a sale to complete and avoiding unnecessary costs for all involved.”

Nathan Emerson, CEO of estate and letting agents’ body Propertymark, said: “Being able to provide transparent material information upfront is essential to helping all parties in the home buying and selling process make informed decisions.

“This means that consumers have a better knowledge, making the process easier, reducing ‘fall through’ rates and allowing the agents and conveyancers to be more proactive and efficient. The industry has long held the goal of decreasing the time required to progress from sale agreed to completion and these improvements are in sight.”

Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, estate agents and letting agents have a legal obligation not to omit material information from consumers on property listings. But National Trading Standards previously said that practices around disclosure were not consistent across the industry.

Levelling up minister Neil O’Brien said: “Far too often when buying and selling properties​, deals fall through, costing young people thousands of pounds in wasted expense.

“By providing all the necessary information upfront, this can be avoided, and it will make the process of buying a first home much easier and more cost-effective.”