Home Buying and Selling Reforms 2026: What Sellers Must Know

By Lisa Hayes · 23 September 2026

The government's Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, published in June 2026, will eventually make sellers in England prepare a "sales pack" before their home can be listed, and then make accepted offers legally binding much earlier, with a financial penalty for anyone who walks away without a valid reason. None of that is law yet. What already applies is the duty on estate agents to disclose material information upfront, and a non-statutory Code of Practice and guidance are due before the end of 2026. If you're selling in the next year or two, the rules haven't changed under you, but buyers' expectations are shifting fast, and sellers who prepare as if the reforms were already here tend to sell faster.

What is the Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap?

It's the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's plan to fix what ministers openly call a "broken" system. Housing minister Matthew Pennycook laid it before the Commons and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage before the Lords on 22 June 2026, alongside the government's responses to two consultations that ran in late 2025: one on home buying and selling reform generally, and one on material information in property listings.

The numbers behind it will be familiar to anyone who has sold a house in the last few years. According to the ministerial statement, it takes around 120 days on average to complete once an offer is accepted, and around one in three transactions fall through, costing buyers and sellers around £400 million a year in wasted fees.

• ~120 daysoffer accepted to completion
• 1 in 3sales currently fall through
• £400mwasted costs every year
• ~4 weekstime the reforms aim to cut for buyers

The core principle, in the government's words, is that people "should know what they are buying before they commit money and time". Everything else in the roadmap flows from that.

What exactly is changing for sellers?

There are five strands. Only one of them has any legal teeth today.

There's also a digital strand running underneath all of this: property logbooks, digital ID, qualified electronic signatures, a Smart Data scheme for property information, completion of HM Land Registry's Local Land Charges programme by 2028, and a fully digital geospatial land register by 2035. You won't have to do anything about most of that yourself, but it's what should eventually make the sales pack cheap and quick to produce.

What will be in a sales pack?

The detail is still being worked out with industry, but the roadmap gives a clear indicative list. Based on the government's response, as summarised by law firm TLT, a sales pack is expected to include:

• tenure type, property type, council tax band and EPC rating
• title information and documents, including known covenants
• seller ID verification
• leasehold or estate management terms: service charges, ground rent and so on
• building safety information
• standard search results: local authority, drainage and water, environmental, plus any locality-specific risks such as mining
• a property questionnaire (think of today's TA6 property information form)
• a property condition assessment report tailored to the age and type of the home
• accessibility information, chain status and a floor plan

Crucially, you as seller keep overall responsibility for making sure the pack exists. Professionals do the gathering and checking: your conveyancer on the legal and title side, a surveyor on condition.

Isn't this just the Home Information Pack again?

It's the obvious question, and a fair one. Home Information Packs (HIPs) were brought in for England and Wales in 2007 and suspended in 2010. They were widely disliked because they added cost without adding much certainty: buyers' lenders and solicitors didn't trust them, so searches got done twice, and the pack didn't include a proper survey, so the one thing buyers most wanted to know was missing.

The new plan differs in three ways that matter:

1. A condition report is in. The HIP was criticised for leaving it out; this one puts it at the heart of the pack.
2. It's tied to binding contracts. A HIP gave buyers information but asked nothing of them. Here, upfront information is the price of making buyers commit earlier.
3. It's designed to be digital and reusable. If data can be verified and shared through logbooks, a buyer's lender shouldn't need to re-order the same search.

Scotland is the useful comparison. Scottish sellers have had to provide a Home Report (a single survey, energy report and property questionnaire) since 2008, and the system is well established. It isn't perfect, but it's proof the concept can work in a UK market. If you're selling north of the border, see our guide to selling in Scotland; the English roadmap doesn't change your process.

When will sales packs and binding contracts actually happen?

Later than the headlines suggest. The roadmap runs in three phases.

1. 2026: non-statutory material information guidance and a standardised form; a non-statutory Code of Practice for property agents; identifying sales pack information sellers can provide voluntarily now; preparing the sector for binding contracts; a call for evidence on data sharing.
2. 2027 to 2028: consultation on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents; wider use of digital ID and electronic signatures; a consultation on a property Smart Data scheme; consultation on sales-information legislation for leasehold and privately managed estates.
3. By the end of this Parliament (subject to parliamentary time): legislation requiring sales packs before listing, binding conditional contracts, and a framework for secure digital data sharing.

"Subject to parliamentary time" is doing a lot of work in that last line. The next general election must be held by 2029. My honest read: if you're selling in 2026 or 2027, you won't be legally required to produce a sales pack. If you're planning a move in 2029 or later, you probably will, but I wouldn't bet the house on a precise date.

What are binding conditional contracts, and could I be fined for pulling out?

A binding conditional contract commits buyer and seller much earlier, for example once an offer is accepted and the terms agreed, rather than at exchange. Each side agrees to meet set conditions (the buyer's mortgage being approved, say). If one of you withdraws without a valid reason, you face a financial penalty.

So yes, in future, a seller who accepts an offer and then takes a higher one from somebody else, the classic gazumping move, could lose money. The same would apply to a buyer who tries to knock £20,000 off the day before exchange without any new facts to justify it.

What counts as a "valid reason" hasn't been defined. Expect things like a down valuation, a genuinely new defect or a mortgage offer being withdrawn to be on the permitted list, and "I've changed my mind" or "I got a better offer" to be off it. Until the legislation is drafted, anyone telling you the exact penalty is guessing.

Importantly, the government has said binding contracts won't come into force until sales packs are embedded. That ordering is right. Asking a buyer to commit before they know about the subsidence claim or the £4,000 service charge would be unfair.

Can I use a binding agreement now?

Yes. The roadmap commits to raising awareness of existing voluntary reservation agreements. These are private contracts where both parties typically put down a sum that's lost if they withdraw without a permitted reason during an agreed period. They're common with new builds and some modern auction formats, and a growing number of agents offer them on ordinary resales. They're worth considering if you've been burned by a collapsed sale before, but read the terms carefully: who holds the money, what counts as a valid reason, and how long the lock lasts.

What does "material information" mean, and is it already required?

This is the part sellers underestimate. Since the consumer protection provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force in April 2025, estate agents have been legally barred from omitting information an average buyer would need to make a decision, or presenting it in an unclear, untimely or obscure way. Doing so can be a misleading omission, which is unlawful. Enforcement sits with Trading Standards (including the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team), the Competition and Markets Authority and the redress schemes.

The government's indicative list of what's likely to be material for most homes is long: price, council tax, tenure and lease length, ground rent and service charges, utilities, heating, broadband and mobile signal, parking, accessibility, rights and easements, flood risk, construction type, known issues (damp, subsidence, asbestos, Japanese knotweed), building safety defects, restrictions such as listing or a conservation area, coastal erosion, planning permission and whether you're in a coalfield area.

The government has said, fairly bluntly, that some agents knowingly ignore these duties because asking sellers for the information might put them off listing. If your agent isn't asking you about lease length, the boiler or that extension you never got signed off, that's not a favour. It's a problem waiting for your buyer's solicitor to find. Our full guide to material information when selling a house goes through each item.

Will the reforms make selling more expensive?

A little, upfront, for some sellers. The government's own modelling, as reported by TLT, estimates that first-time buyers would save around £710 on average, home movers (who both buy and sell) around £400, and "final sellers", those selling without buying (often downsizers, executors and landlords), would see net costs rise by about £310.

The logic for final sellers is simple: you'd pay for searches and a condition report you currently leave to the buyer, but you'd get nothing back on the purchase side. The ministerial statement quotes a slightly different first-time buyer figure (£650), which tells you these are estimates, not promises.

Is £310 worth it? If it cuts the fall-through rate from one in three to one in seven, as the government projects, I'd say yes for most people. A single collapsed sale typically costs a seller far more in wasted legal fees, extra mortgage payments, council tax on an empty house and, often, a lower second offer.

What does this mean for leasehold flats and estate charges?

This is the most immediately useful bit for flat owners. Anyone who has sold a leasehold flat knows the wait for the management pack (LPE1 or similar) from the freeholder or managing agent, and the fee, sometimes several hundred pounds, that comes with it.

The roadmap confirms the government will use powers in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 to set caps on fees and turnaround times for sale information, with a standard framework for asking for and providing it. The same applies to freehold homes on privately managed estates paying estate charges. A consultation on that legislation is pencilled in for 2027 to 2028.

Until then, the best defence is to order the management pack the day you decide to sell, not the day you accept an offer. See our guides to selling a leasehold flat and selling a flat fast.

Should I prepare a sales pack now, even though it isn't required?

Yes, a light version of one. Not because the law says so, but because the market already rewards it. The roadmap itself calls it good practice for sellers to instruct a conveyancer before listing, and it's the single cheapest speed-up I know.

Here's what I'd do if I were listing next month:

1. Instruct your conveyancer before you list. Get them to download the title register and plan, flag anything odd (missing easements, restrictions, unregistered land) and start ID and anti-money-laundering checks now.
2. Fill in the TA6, TA10 and, if leasehold, TA7 forms early. Be honest. Anything you hide now becomes a misleading omission later.
3. Gather certificates. FENSA or CERTASS for windows, Gas Safe and electrical certificates, building regulations completion for extensions, guarantees for damp proofing or cavity wall insulation. Our documents checklist covers the lot.
4. Order the leasehold management pack if you have one, and ask for the likely service charge for next year.
5. Consider paying for searches yourself. Many buyers' lenders accept seller-ordered searches if they're recent and come with appropriate insurance. Check with your conveyancer.
6. Think about a pre-sale survey if the house is older or has known quirks. Far better to find the damp before a buyer does. If a survey does turn something up, you'll have time to get quotes and decide whether to fix it or price it in.

None of this is wasted even if the reforms stall. It's exactly what our guide to speeding up a house sale recommends anyway.

How will the reforms affect cash buyers and quick-sale companies?

Less than you'd think, and that's worth understanding. Cash buyers and house-buying companies already sidestep most of the causes of delay the roadmap targets: there's no mortgage to fail, no chain, and the good ones pay for their own searches and survey. Their risk comes from other places: the late renegotiation, the offer that shrinks after the "survey", and the firm that turns out to be an agent flipping your house to an investor.

Two parts of the reform should help sellers here:

• The Code of Practice and qualification rules apply to property agents. Plenty of "we buy any house" brands are actually intermediaries rather than end buyers, and higher standards for them are overdue.
• Binding conditional contracts, once in force, would make the notorious last-minute price cut much harder to justify without a genuine new reason.

Until then, protect yourself the old-fashioned way: check they're a genuine buyer with proof of funds, get the offer in writing, and compare more than one. Our list of the best house buying companies and our explainer on why cash buyers pay below market value will help you judge whether an offer is fair.

Does the roadmap apply in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?

The roadmap is an MHCLG document and is aimed at England. Scotland already runs its own Home Report system and separate regulation of property professionals; the government has said it doesn't expect the agent Code of Practice to apply there. Consumer protection law such as the DMCCA is UK-wide, so material information duties matter wherever you sell. For Wales and Northern Ireland, check how the devolved governments respond before assuming the English timetable applies. We cover the local processes in our guides to selling in Wales and selling in Northern Ireland.

Should I sell now or wait for the reforms?

Don't time your sale around this. The reforms that would genuinely change your experience, sales packs and binding contracts, are years away and may slip. The things arriving in 2026 (guidance, a voluntary code) change agent behaviour at the edges rather than your legal position.

What should drive your timing: your reason for moving, your equity, whether you're in a chain, and local prices. Check what your home is realistically worth with our valuation guide or a free valuation, and keep an eye on house prices in your area.

If anything, there's a mild case for acting now if your home has a known problem. As material information expectations tighten, issues like short leases, unapproved works or non-standard construction will be spelled out on listings from day one rather than surfacing at survey. That's fairer to buyers, but it means fewer "let's see if anyone notices" sales. If that describes your house, a buyer who takes properties as they are, or a specialist route for hard-to-sell homes, may still be your best option.

The common mistakes I expect sellers to make

• Assuming the pack is already compulsory. It isn't. Anyone charging you for a "mandatory government sales pack" in 2026 is misleading you.
• Assuming nothing has changed. The material information duty is live. An agent who lists your leasehold flat without the lease length is breaking the law, and you're the one who'll pay when the buyer walks at week eight.
• Waiting for an offer before calling a solicitor. The single biggest avoidable delay in English conveyancing, and the government now says so explicitly.
• Treating a reservation agreement like a formality. They cut both ways. Read what happens if you need to withdraw.

Where to go from here

The roadmap is the most serious attempt to reform English conveyancing since HIPs, and it's pointed in the right direction: information first, commitment second, penalties for bad faith. For now, the smartest thing you can do is sell as if the reforms were already here. Get your paperwork ready, instruct your conveyancer early, be upfront about problems, and compare your options properly.

If speed or certainty matters more to you than squeezing out the last pound, it's worth seeing what a cash sale would look like alongside an agent's valuation. You can compare offers from vetted cash buyers here. It's free, and there's no obligation to take any of them.