What the Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap means for property records

On 19 June 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap as a consultation outcome. It commits to legislate, when parliamentary time allows, for sales packs prepared before a property is listed and for digital property logbooks and packs as a standard part of transactions, with a phased path of guidance now, consultation next and legislation by the end of the Parliament.

What did the government publish on 19 June 2026?

A roadmap setting out how it intends to reform home buying and selling in England and Wales, published as the outcome of its consultation on the subject. It covers upfront property information, professionalising property agents, digital property logbooks and packs, binding conditional contracts, consumer education, streamlining transactions, and the digitalisation of the registers. It is a statement of intent with a timetable, not itself a change in the law.

What does the roadmap say about digital property logbooks?

It describes digital logbooks as online secure records of information specific to a property, owned by the homeowner, and says the government will legislate to ensure that digital logbooks and packs become a standard part of property transactions when parliamentary time allows, with mandated minimum, standardised data. It does not specify who holds or operates a logbook; the detailed governance is left to industry work through the Digital Property Market Steering Group.

What must happen before any of it is law?

Legislation. The roadmap plans primary legislation for sales packs, for binding conditional contracts once sales packs are embedded, for digital logbooks and packs, and for a regulatory framework on how property data is stored, maintained and shared. Until Parliament passes those measures, the roadmap's near-term instruments are non-statutory: guidance on property listings, a voluntary sales pack, a code of practice for agents and an advisory charter. Nothing in the roadmap obliges a homeowner or a seller to hold a logbook today.

What does the timetable look like?

The roadmap groups its actions into now, next and future. In 2026: non-statutory guidance on property listings, identifying voluntary sales pack information, a code of practice for agents, a call for evidence on a smart data scheme for property. In 2027 and 2028: an advisory charter, consultation on mandatory qualifications for agents and on the smart data scheme, a voluntary accreditation scheme, support for digital identity and qualified electronic signatures. By the end of the Parliament: legislation for sales packs, binding conditional contracts and digital logbooks. On the registers it names 2028 for completing the Local Land Charges programme, 2030 for register modernisation with data standards, and 2035 for a fully digital geospatial register.

What can a homeowner do now?

Keep a record that would answer the questions a sales pack asks: what work has been done, by whom, with what evidence; which certificates the property holds and when they expire; what the official registers say about it. The roadmap's own description of a logbook, a secure record specific to the property and owned by the homeowner, is a record anyone can start keeping before any legislation requires it. A record built as the work happens, with its evidence attached, is worth more at the point of sale than one assembled from memory the week the house goes on the market.

Sources

• Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap (consultation outcome), Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2026-06-19)

This page is general information for property professionals, not legal advice. For a decision that matters, take advice on your specific facts.

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