So, I was all set to have a bit of fun at the expense of new housing secretary Steve Reed and his performative red cap merch moment at the Labour Party Conference – I still might – when a Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) press release landed.
Normally, anything from government is to be taken with a mine of salt, especially when it can’t help putting a specific figure on something, but then I realised: Hang on, Show House was way ahead of the game in regard to this story, or, more specifically, our brand-new PropTech editor, Louisa Fletcher, was.
It was Louisa, in our June issue, who first brought Material Information and the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC Act) to light in terms of its impact on housebuilders. As editorial appointments go, none could be more timely – and if you want to understand the AI opportunities for the industry turn to her first column on p71.
The MHCLG trumpets that: ‘Hundreds of thousands of first-time buyers are set to save £710 on average when buying a home’ and then talked of mandatory upfront information around tenure, council tax band, EPC rating, property type, legal and transactional information such as title and seller ID verification, leasehold terms, building safety data, standard searches, property condition assessments tailored to property age and type, service charges, planning consents, flood risk data, chain status and clear floorplans. I’m sure there’s more – and there is.
The government paper refers to sellers and estate agents having to publish information from searches and surveys before a property listing is published, ‘for buyers to see the physical condition, characteristics and flood risk of the property online, enabling buyers to make informed decisions sooner and sellers will benefit from faster transactions, resulting in fewer costly fall-throughs’.
Digital property logbooks, digital ID verification and standardised data sharing, mandatory qualifications and Code of Practice for estate, letting and managing agents and Material Information including requirements under the DMCC Act. This all aims to help provide explicit guidance for estate agents on what information they should include in property listings.
“Buying a home should be a dream, not a nightmare. Our reforms will fix the broken system so hardworking people can focus on the next chapter of their lives. Through our Plan for Change, we are putting more money back into working people’s pockets and making a simple dream a simple reality,” crowed Reed, the man who in his tenure as DEFRA secretary set out to break hardworking family farmers, by taking money out of their pockets and turning the next chapter of their lives into a nightmare.
The MHCLG explicitly references the DMCC Act as the legislative backbone – and that line alone changes everything. As Show House reported earlier this year, the requirement for housebuilders to incorporate Material Information, at plot level, within marketing materials hasn’t exactly been well-communicated by the government, or the CMA for that matter, since it became a legal requirement in April. However, clarity appears to be emerging, albeit slowly and Show House has since had direct confirmation from government that the measures announced on 6 October broadly apply to new-build homes. The proposals are subject to consultation, with the government paper explicitly referencing new homes in the context of introducing logbooks.
‘New-build homes offer a clear opportunity to lead adoption of digital property logbooks and upfront information. Developers already hold comprehensive property data, making it straightforward to provide verified, standardised information from the outset. This is one of the reasons it can be faster to purchase a new-build property. Embedding digital property packs in new-build transactions would deliver faster, more certain sales, set a benchmark for the wider market, and support the government’s ambition to deliver 1.5m homes over the next parliament.’
Is there still space for another dig at Red Cap Reed? Of course there is. The housing secretary is the man who, when interviewed during the Labour Party Conference, did not know how many new homes had been built so far under this government. Mind you, I suspect as DEFRA secretary he would have stumbled if you’d ask him to tell the difference between a tractor and a trombone.
I have covered the housebuilding industry for over 30 years and Reed’s petulance and ignorance during the GB News interview with Camilla Tominey wins first prize for utter political incompetence and contempt in a very crowded field. It would take someone signing red caps, like a Streatham and Croydon North Trump, with a fatuous ‘Build Baby Build’ slogan, with no understanding of the business of housebuilding, to surpass it. Oh wait….
This article was first featured in Show House Magazine. Read more like this and the latest industry insight here.
