Conveyancers hopeful about the housing market, but note slow progress in accelerating the process. – TNT

Almost three-quarters (72%) of conveyancers are confident in the stability of the current market, up from 55% of those surveyed in the first, but report little sign of the transaction process speeding up.

The results form part of the latest quarterly Confidence Tracker recently launched by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) to gauge the views of the profession on the existing state of home buying and selling market.

Conveyancers have perhaps been buoyed by the success of the recent rush by home buyers to complete before the stamp duty thresholds were slashed on 1 April.

Despite many hailing it as their busiest period on record, 82% said they were able to complete the vast majority of transactions before the cut-off.

Almost 150 conveyancers took part in the CLC’s latest Confidence Tracker, which also found that 27% thought the conveyancing process was getting faster and more efficient, an increase of 10% from the previous quarter.

Transaction times show little sign of speeding up, however, with 82% still taking three to four months to complete from an offer being accepted.

This may be the reason why client confidence in the market remains low, with only around a third of conveyancers believing sellers had any at all. Buyers were thought to be more optimistic, up from 29% to 46%.

Stephen Ward, head of strategy and external relations at the CLC, said: “It’s pleasing that confidence in the market has not waned despite the predicted slowdown in activity once the stamp duty deadline had passed.

“However, it still means that almost one in three conveyancers are not confident about the current climate and client confidence is far from where we would like it to be.

“We urge conveyancers to engage with the work of the Home Buying and Selling Council and Digital Property Market Steering Group and consider the many opportunities to make improvements to their processes and tools that will benefit their clients and their businesses, reducing transaction times, and improving security and accuracy.”