While the internet has made spending money easier than ever, buyers still rate completing a property purchase as one of life’s most stressful experiences. But that could be about to change. Blockchain shook the property headlines in April when it cut the time taken to buy a property from months to weeks, and now buyers could complete the entire process via an app.
Coadjute, a network for decentralised workflow and data sharing within the property industry, have agreed a project to develop new mortgage and home buying technology with a consortium of property software providers and banks, including NatWest.
Dan Salmons, Director for Mortgage Innovation at RBS, said: “The home buying process is an area ripe for improvement, however, real change can only be brought to bear if we bring all the parties involved together. This is why this project and consortium is such a crucial step and if it is successful it will be a game-changer for our customers and the entire property market.”
The purpose of the technology is to speed up and simplify the entire home buying process and make it available via NatWest’s mobile banking app. To do this, a consortium has been formed with the software providers from each stage of the home buying process – Dezrez Estate Agency Software, Redbrick Solutions Conveyancing Software, eTech Surveyor Software, Search Acumen Property Data, Conveyancing Data Services Property Data, and LMS Panel Management Software.
Coadjute will work with NatWest to create a new end to end home buying journey by connecting each leading software provider’s platform and building a decentralised home buying network, By using blockchain, or rather, distributed ledger technology, the information required in processes such as securing a mortgage and finalising an offer to buy will be seamlessly shared between each party.
As a result, the whole home buying process should be significantly faster and efficient. The project will ultimately aim to provide NatWest customers with complete transparency over the entire home buying process via their app. Consequently, consumers should feel more in control and confident.
Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, said: “The interaction between lenders and conveyancers has been transformed over the past decade, with digital services conveyancers can be requested, instructed and working within hours. We believe getting simpler levels of connectivity across the entire home buying journey will create benefits for both consumers, conveyancers and lenders”.
Christian Woodhouse, Head of Data and Strategic Products of Search Acumen, added: “We’re in a very exciting time for property/PropTech innovation where we’re able to back up the market hype around distributed ledger technology with meaningful action.
“Anyone who has bought or sold a property understands the frustration of the painfully slow and complex process that relies of inefficient, often paper-based correspondence between lawyers. We’re pleased to be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking project that could significantly improve the efficiency and transparency of the property transaction process for lawyers through digital innovations.”
Coadjute’s trial was built on Corda Network and hosted on Microsoft Azure in what is known as a R3 CorDapp Trial.
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