Government unveils homebuying reforms: what they mean for surveyors
On 19 June 2026, the government set out a major package of reforms to the way homes are bought and sold, with the stated aims of cutting around four weeks from the average transaction, reducing the number of sales that collapse and bringing an outdated, paper-heavy process into the digital age.
At the centre of the proposals are upfront "sales packs" that sellers and estate agents will be required to provide at the point of listing. These are expected to include key information about a property's condition, leasehold costs and chain status. Alongside this, the government has announced plans for earlier binding agreements to discourage parties from walking away without good reason, a new Code of Practice for estate agents, proposals for mandatory qualifications in the sector and a wider shift towards digital property logbooks, electronic identity checks, electronic signatures and AI-assisted conveyancing. The changes are to be phased across the current Parliament, beginning with the Code of Practice later this year.
For RPSA members, the single most significant feature is the proposed move to place a property's condition at the front of the transaction rather than towards the end. If condition information must be supplied at the point of listing, the surveyor's role shifts from a late-stage check to a central part of the process from the very first day a home goes to market. That is a substantial change in where, when and how condition reporting sits within a sale.
It did not go unnoticed that RICS moved quickly to set out its position. Its chief executive welcomed the focus on better upfront information and pointed specifically to the need for "a reliable condition report from properly qualified and regulated surveyors", adding that RICS looks forward to helping the government put consistent standards and levels of accountability in place. The direction of travel is clear. As qualifications, standards, regulation and oversight develop, the question of whose standards and whose qualifications underpin these reforms matters greatly. The RPSA does not intend to see that question settled from the sidelines. We will engage with it directly, making the case for our members and for the independent surveyor wherever those decisions are taken.
Nor is this a new posture for us. These reforms do not stand alone. They sit alongside a wider discussion about professional regulation, competence and accountability across the built environment. The RPSA is already actively engaged in that work through the Construction Industry Council, ensuring that the voice of the independent residential surveyor is heard clearly at industry and government level. We are not waiting to see how the landscape settles. We are working to help shape it.
It is also worth remembering that RICS is not the only professional home in this field. RPSA members are drawn from across the surveying and built environment sector and hold their qualifications and accreditations through a variety of established routes, among them the Chartered Association of Building Engineers (CABE) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). CABE was not among the bodies quoted in the announcement, and its perspective on reforms that place building condition so firmly at the centre of the transaction would be a valuable one. The RPSA is a membership body rather than an accreditation authority, and we represent competent, independent practitioners whatever route they have taken into the profession. That breadth is a strength, not a footnote.
The RPSA welcomes any reform that brings greater certainty, transparency and fairness to buyers and sellers, and particularly welcomes the recognition that trustworthy condition information belongs at the heart of a modern transaction. We will, however, be watchful on one point above all others. As qualifications, standards and a Code of Practice take shape, the RPSA will work tirelessly to ensure that the independent surveyor and the small practice are not squeezed out by reforms built, however well intentioned, around the largest organisations.
The independent practitioner, free of agency and lender interests, is among the strongest safeguards a homebuyer has, and a plural, competitive market of skilled professionals is firmly in the public interest. RPSA members are precisely the qualified, independent surveyors this market will come to rely on. We will be examining the detail of the roadmap over the coming weeks and will publish a fuller briefing on what it means for our members and the standards that ought to sit behind it.
A final word on the wider picture. The policy direction set out this week is important, but implementation will take time and the detail will matter. Whatever turns the coming months bring, the RPSA's purpose will not waver. We will keep working hard for our members, for consumers and for the independent surveyor through every change the industry faces.
