Material Information - new digital tool aims to help letting agents

The Open Property Data Association has released a new version of its property data standards framework to help letting agents comply with new guidance. 

OPDA’s latest version provides tools to simplify agents’ compliance processes with the National Trading Standards Material Information for Lettings guidance. OPDA members have worked with several existing companies in the lettings industry on the latest move.

The National Trading Standards Parts B and C, published at the end of last year, means listing properties has become significantly easier using digital property data. 

But it is vital that data is properly provenanced so it can be safely re-used. OPDA’s framework provides this reassurance by tracing where each data item is from so that users can verify and evidence sources.

The framework is helping to accelerate the digitisation of the property market, making transactions easier and more efficient. A standardised set of data and governance principles, the framework is freely available to the entire property industry and its software providers, from estate agents, through to lawyers, lenders and brokers, without any restrictive, proprietary licences. 

Currently, less than one per cent of property information is available digitally. 

The association says converting all property data sources and documents to a digital format and making them shareable is essential if the lettings process is to speed up. Shareable and trustable data will also reduce fraud and failed transactions which will be hugely beneficial to landlords and estate agents.

The new version framework also includes improvements in its support for the National Trading Standards for sales based on feedback from agents, to help make the requirements more understandable for both agents and sellers alike. It will tackle digital conveyancing, lending and completion next, moving even closer to the long-overdue digitisation of the whole property sale process.

The release of the new version of the framework comes after Lloyds Banking Group joined OPDA this month. The association is also working with government, through the Digital Property Market Steering Group and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to encourage the adoption of open data standards.