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Jun

Andrew McColl - Chairman
16 June 2026

Propertymark Conference - June 2026

Propertymark One 2026: a day on the main stage, from an RPSA seat

On Friday 12 June, ExCeL London threw open its doors for Propertymark One 2026, and I was lucky enough to be there alongside my RPSA council colleague Sean Curtin, the two of us attending as guests of Propertymark's chief executive, Nathan Emerson. My thanks go straight away to Nathan and the whole Propertymark team, both for the invitation and for putting on such a polished, well-run day. It was, by any measure, a big day out for the property profession. Almost 2,000 agents, surveyors, suppliers and policy types packed the halls, and with two main stages running in parallel, one for sales and one for lettings, the day was about as action-packed as a conference gets. You genuinely could not be in two places at once, which made the choice of where to sit a small art form in itself.

I went to listen, but also to scrutinise, because residential surveying does not happen in a vacuum. We are one part of a much larger home-moving machine, working alongside agents, conveyancers, lenders, insurers, developers and the policy-makers who set the rules we all live by. The better the RPSA understands the pressures and opportunities running through the rest of that machine, the better we can support our members and, in the end, the better the advice our members give to the public. So a day like this is not a jolly. It is homework with decent coffee.

I want to focus here on the speakers who held the headline stage, because that is where the conference really showed its ambition this year. Sean and I have been to a fair few of these over the years, and this one had a noticeably sharper edge to it.

Setting the tone

Host Jason Lee, Propertymark's Head of Commercial, got us going at a fair clip, and it has to be said the man knows how to warm up a room. Nathan Emerson followed with the CEO update, setting out where he sees the profession heading and, quite rightly, making the case for what membership of a professional body brings to an agent's business. I will say it was a genuine pleasure that, busy as he was, Nathan took the time during the day to come and have a proper chat with Sean and me. Small courtesies like that say a lot about an organisation, and they matter to the RPSA, because the relationships we build with the bodies working to raise standards are exactly how surveyors stay part of the bigger conversation.

Then came one of the more thought-provoking sessions of the morning. Steve Pimblett, Chief Data Officer at Rightmove, talked us through how artificial intelligence and data are reshaping the way people search for and buy homes. His point landed well. Rightmove is sitting on billions of consumer interactions, and that data is increasingly being used to generate personalised recommendations for home movers. His message to agents was blunt and, I think, correct. Do not wait for AI to arrive. It is already here, so start learning how to use it sensibly now. For those of us in surveying, the same applies. The firms that treat these tools as a help rather than a threat will be the ones still standing in ten years, but professional judgement, integrity and clear advice are not going anywhere.

My pick of the day

If you ask me who the standout was, it was Daisy McAndrew, and not for the first time. She is one of those broadcasters who can hold a stage on her own and then turn around and chair a panel or interview a guest without missing a beat, which is exactly what she did, hosting and interviewing both Baroness Brady and Angela Rayner across the day.

The highlight of her own slot, for me, was when she ran back through the predictions she made at last year's event. She was very nearly spot on across the board, with one honourable near miss. She had called the end of Rachel Reeves's time as Chancellor. As it turns out, Reeves is still very much in post and has repeatedly refused to walk away, so Daisy did not quite get the result there. That said, anyone who watched some of the Chancellor's tougher moments at the despatch box this past year might want to keep a packet of tissues somewhere handy. Daisy was generous enough to mark her own homework honestly, which is more than most of us manage. In a market driven as much by confidence and sentiment as by bricks and mortar, that kind of clear-eyed reading of the political weather is worth a great deal.

Stamp duty takes centre stage

The political heavyweight of the day was Sir Mel Stride, the Shadow Chancellor, and he came with a message that will have warmed the heart of every estate agent in the room. Stamp duty, he argued, is a terrible tax on aspiration, and abolishing it on primary residences could lift housebuilding by around 25 per cent. That figure works out at roughly 200,000 extra homes over a five-year parliament, based on modelling from the Adam Smith Institute. He also took aim at fiscal drag, the quiet process by which more and more homes get pulled into higher stamp duty bands without anyone ever voting for it.

It is a seductive pitch, and from where surveyors and agents sit, there is no denying that stamp duty gums up the market. It keeps older people in homes that are too big for them and makes it harder for everyone else to move for work. I would gently add a note of caution, though, because a good blog should give you the whole picture and not just the applause lines. This is not actually Sir Mel's own idea but a Conservative pledge first made by Kemi Badenoch at last year's party conference, and it has its critics. The Institute for Government, for one, has pointed out that a cut this large and this expensive needs to be squared with the party's claims to fiscal responsibility, and that big promises are always easier to make in opposition than in government. Worth keeping in mind before we all get carried away.

Reform from the other side of the aisle

Balancing the politics nicely, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, the Lords Minister for Housing and Local Government, set out the current Government's plans to reform the home buying and selling process and to improve the material information that appears in property listings. This is the part of the day that should matter most to surveyors, even if it generated fewer headlines than the stamp duty fireworks. Better upfront information and a smoother transaction process go to the heart of what we do, and Propertymark confirmed it will be working with HM Land Registry and the Ministry of Housing on the delivery groups that follow. If the buying and selling process is finally going to be dragged into the modern age, the profession needs to be in the room while it happens, and it was reassuring to hear that it will be.

Accountability, not endorsement

Then there was Angela Rayner, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, who took live questions from the floor. I will be honest, she is a bit marmite, and the last place I expected to find her was a Propertymark conference, given the well publicised stamp duty episode on her Hove flat that contributed to her departure from government last September. There was a certain irony in watching a former Housing Secretary take questions at the very event whose headline act wanted to scrap the tax that had loomed so large over her own exit.

To Propertymark's credit, they were clear that the session was about accountability rather than endorsement, and they were right to give delegates the rare chance to put their concerns about lettings, leasehold reform and the private rented sector directly to someone who had held the levers. She spoke well, in fairness to her, and engaged properly with the room. Politics aside, getting that kind of direct access to senior decision makers is one of the things Propertymark One does better than almost anyone. It lets the sector challenge, explain and inform, rather than simply react to decisions taken somewhere over our heads.

Leadership and technology

Rounding out the headline acts, Baroness Karren Brady drew on her career in business and football to talk leadership, ambition and resilience, and the importance of building a culture where everyone understands their part in the bigger picture. Whatever you make of The Apprentice, she is a serious operator, and her points about teams knowing their role landed just as well for a five-person surveying practice as they would for a Premier League club.

Technology journalist and BBC Click presenter Lara Lewington then widened the lens, looking at how artificial intelligence is being used well beyond property, from earlier disease detection to more personalised healthcare. Her closing thought stuck with me, and it is the right one for our profession to hold onto. Technology is only ever as good as the people applying it. AI can help with process, data and communication, and it will only get better at it, but it cannot supply experience, ethical judgement or the duty of care a surveyor owes a client. That part is still firmly ours.

The conversations in the margins

For all the firepower on stage, the real value of a day like this often sits in the gaps between sessions. The exhibition floor was busy from start to finish, with suppliers and service providers showing off the tools they reckon will help property businesses adapt, and Sean and I made good use of the time to meet exhibitors and catch up with familiar faces from across the sector.

Sean's background in complaint resolution made many of those conversations about compliance and customer service particularly relevant, and it chimed with his work on the RPSA's Complaints Resolution Service, which has achieved an amazing success rate in resolving the surveyor complaints that come its way. One thing every experienced surveyor knows is that a great many disputes do not actually start with a defect at all. They start with a misunderstanding, with poor communication, or with a gap between what the client thought they were buying and what the surveyor was actually instructed to provide. Events that bring the whole sector together are part of how we close those gaps.

Why it matters to surveyors

Propertymark One is aimed squarely at estate and letting agents, but there was a great deal in it for surveyors, and the themes running through the day were ours as much as anyone's. Improving the buying and selling process, increasing transparency, using technology responsibly, adapting to legislative change and protecting consumer confidence are not agency problems. They are property problems, and surveyors sit right in the middle of them.

A well-written survey report helps a buyer understand risk and avoid a nasty surprise. A thorough snagging inspection helps a new-build buyer hold a developer to account. A buy-to-let survey helps a landlord understand their responsibilities and raise standards in rented homes. But to do any of that well, we also need to understand the pressures bearing down on agents, conveyancers, landlords and policy-makers. The more clearly the sector sees itself as one connected system, the better it serves the public, and the stronger the case for the work the RPSA is doing to grow member support, develop professional guidance and push forward the Chartered Status pathway through CABE.

A worthwhile day

Bill Butler, Propertymark's Non-Executive Chair, brought the day to a close with a neat recap before the after-party took over, and it rounded off an event that was energetic, well organised and genuinely thought-provoking from start to finish. Our thanks go to Nathan Emerson and the whole Propertymark team for their hospitality and for putting on such a strong programme.

Propertymark One 2026 delivered a real dose of insight, influence and innovation, and a thoroughly good day out into the bargain. Same time next year? I rather think so.

Andrew McColl is Chairman of the Residential Property Surveyors Association (RPSA).