By Richard Tuck
Michael Tuck Estate and Letting Agents have been selling property for over 40 years and today serve customers in Gloucester and Tewkesbury. I have been personally involved in the business since 1998.
During that time, despite technological advances the house buying process has become slower and more complicated. Sales that previously took three months to go through are now in my experience typically taking between five and six months. These delays inevitably increase the risk of sales falling through and also create more stress and uncertainty for everybody involved.
I’m pleased to see the government addressing these issues. In June 2026, it announced a major home buying and selling reform roadmap, aiming to shorten transactions times by four week, reduce failed sales and lower costs for first time buyers.
Core Proposals and Measures
At time of writing, we are still waiting for full details but we do have a list of future core proposals and measures which are:
Upfront Sales Packs: Legally mandatory property information such as condition, tenure, searches which will be provided at listing. Basically, a nod back to an improved version of Home Information Packs.
Binding Agreements: Earlier contracts with financial penalties for pulling our unjustifiably. In practice this may be similar to the Scottish system and that of other countries which seems to work very well.
Digitalisation: Adoption of digital logbooks, ID checks, e-signatures and AI tools to help Conveyancing. The duplication and time spent during the onboarding process is currently unacceptable, and it is far too easy to waste a month while repeated checks are undertaken.
Professional Standards: Proposal for Mandatory qualifications and a new Code of Practice for estate agents. When you are selling or buying a property, it is often the biggest purchase that you will ever make, which is why we already encourage all our staff to undertake regular training and offer a Level 3 Qualification in Estate and Letting Agency.
So, when will this all happen?
Implementation Timeline
This is all subject to change as we recently witnessed with the Renter’s Rights Bill, but at time of writing we are looking at:
2026 (Now): Publishing non-statutory guidance, agent codes of practice and voluntary sale pack trials.
2027-2028: Consulting on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents, advisory charters and digital tools.
End of Parliament: Aims to introduce comprehensive primary legislation enforcing mandatory digital sales packs and binding contracts.
My view
One of my weekly tasks is to meet with the managers of each of our Quedgeley, Gloucester, Abbeymead and Tewkesbury branches to discuss every house sale in detail. It’s a very useful exercise and keeps up the urgency to ensure that each transaction progresses as quickly as possible. The process, however, has become extremely more frustrating and some of the delays are clearly avoidable. These changes really can’t come soon enough in my opinion, and will make the house selling and buying process much easier for all parties involved.
But the key to this being successful is that the upfront information must be useful, reasonably priced and available quickly.
