Upfront information, and the frustrating stalemate of property sales

When I read Robert May’s recent articles, I was intrigued, but also a bit confused. The insights were bold. The thinking was layered. But what struck me most was what wasn’t there, any kind of obvious call to action!

Why put forward such a sweeping reimagining of property data flow, yet leave the reader without any direction?

Curious, I reached out to Robert directly. We spoke for an hour, and by the end of that conversation, I understood exactly what he was doing. It turns out, the absence of a call to action wasn’t an oversight, it was intentional.

What Robert is building is not another shiny tool to bolt onto the existing, creaky property transaction pipeline. It’s not a quick fix, a widget, or an incremental efficiency. It’s a rebuild. A deep rethink of how property transactions should operate when you start from first principles and ask, what would make this truly work better, for everyone?

And that got me thinking more deeply about the work we have been doing at

Property Searches Direct and the frustrating reality we’re up against every day. We are trying to influence individual buyers and sellers, one deal at a time!

The problem nobody denies - but few are solving

Let’s be honest: the property sales process in England and Wales is broken.

✅ It takes 20+ weeks on average to complete a sale.

✅ Roughly 1 in 3 agreed sales fall through.

✅ Buyers and sellers frequently enter deals without the key information they need to make confident, committed decisions.

✅ Transactions are riddled with delays—not because of complex legal issues, but because basic information isn’t available upfront.

None of this is news to those of us working in the sector. The problem isn’t awareness. The problem is action.

At Property Searches Direct, we focus on empowering buyers and sellers to get more of the right information, earlier in the process. Things like title documents, local authority searches, items that are routinely delayed until after an offer is made (and sometimes until mortgage offers or legal exchanges are near), despite being available and valuable much earlier.

When this information is made available upfront:

✅ Buyers are more informed and more serious.

✅ Conveyancers can hit the ground running.

✅ Sales progress faster.

✅ Fall-throughs decrease.

The benefits are real and measurable.

And yet…

Innovation Without Adoption Is Just Noise

Our solution challenges the traditional order of operations. And like Robert, we’ve discovered that the real challenge isn’t technology or regulation, it’s culture.

Many agents, conveyancers, and industry stakeholders acknowledge that things could be better. But too often, they’re locked into legacy thinking:

“That’s not how we’ve done it.”

“My clients won’t go for that.”

“It sounds good, but we’re too busy right now.”

The result? Smart, proven solutions sit on the shelf, or only get used by a small percentage of the market, while the rest of the system keeps chugging along inefficiently.

It’s not just frustrating. It’s a missed opportunity.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

What struck me about Robert’s system is that it doesn’t beg for immediate mass adoption. It waits, quietly confident that its moment will come—when the system is finally ready to catch up.

But I don’t think we need to wait. I believe now is the time for collaboration between those of us working on different parts of the same problem. Whether it’s through new data infrastructure, process reform (like upfront material information), or even cultural nudges from regulators and trade bodies, it’s time to align our efforts.

Because the truth is, we’re not lacking solutions.We’re lacking momentum.

So here’s my call to action—one Robert may have intentionally left unsaid:

✅ Let’s stop waiting for permission to fix what’s broken.

✅ Let’s bring together those who are already building something better.

✅ Let’s share knowledge, align efforts, and amplify what’s working.

If you’re in this space, whether you’re a prop-tech founder, a Conveyancer fed up with delays, an Estate agent ready to modernise, or a policymaker looking for impact—I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s collaborate. Let’s prove what’s possible.

And let’s finally bring property transactions into the 21st century.