Land Registry opens data in bid to speed up deals

The land registry tracks property deals

Land Registry, the government agency that records the buying and selling of land, is opening up its information to businesses to speed up property deals and make house buying more efficient.

Two years ago, the agency launched Chain Matrix, a system that allows relevant parties to view the whole chain of transactions on a property deal and be paid at the same time electronically.

Now Land Registry chief executive Peter Collis has said it is time for the private sector to take over the service.

“Land Registry’s decision to launch Chain Matrix was taken at a time when no private investor was prepared to be the first to establish such a wide-ranging cross-industries initiative,” he said.

“By seeding the market with the prototype we have helped those commercial ventures better understand what is required. Because of this work the time is now right for the private sector to move this on and we know they are ready and eager to do so.”

One in three property transactions fails before exchange of contracts because of a lack of information in a complex process that involves solicitors, conveyancers, estate agents, buyers and sellers.

This is an issue that all parties were keen to address, but developing and maintaining the Chain Matrix system had a fragmented business case, meaning Land Registry had to take the lead.

The agency is offering to support developers and businesses so they can provide such a system ­ which is expensive to maintain ­ and will open up its data for use in such commercial solutions.

The government has recently been criticised for being too slow to open up its information to the private sector in this way.

But Land Registry is developing further electronic services to replace paper-based operations. Later this year, the agency is introducing Business Gateway to allow conveyancers to use their case management software to lodge applications directly to Land Registry.