Open Property Smart Data: How APIs Will Transform UK Homebuying

What is Open Property in the UK Smart Data context?

Open Property is the idea of applying Smart Data principles to the UK property market, so that trusted organisations can share accurate, up-to-date property information via APIs, with the right permissions, at the right time.

Instead of each conveyancer, lender or estate agent separately requesting and re-keying information from sources such as HM Land Registry, local authorities or property data providers, a Smart Data-enabled Open Property scheme would let them access that information digitally, from the original source, in a secure and standardised way.

The UK Government’s Smart Data work, enabled by the Data (Use and Access) Act and the Smart Data Roadmap, specifically highlights homebuying as one of the priority sectors for future schemes.

In simple terms

• Open Property is to property data what Open Banking is to financial data.
  
  
• It uses secure, consent-based APIs instead of manual document exchange.
  
  
• It focuses on making homebuying faster, more transparent and less risky.
  
  
• It relies on a trust framework to determine the rules of the scheme to govern processes, standards, technology and outcomes. 

→ Learn more about Raidiam's solutions for Smart Data in the UK

Why does the UK need an Open Property Smart Data scheme?

The homebuying process in the UK is often described as slow, opaque and stressful. Buyers, sellers and professionals all know the pain points.

Typical challenges include:

• Long timeframes between offer and completion, often several months.
  
  
• One in three transactions fail to complete, frequently due to delays or missing information.
  
  
• Duplicate data entry, where the same facts are provided again and again.
  
  
• Fragmented data sources, held by different authorities and organisations.
  
  
• Limited real-time visibility of progress for consumers.

A Smart Data approach can address these issues by:

• Allowing key property data to be accessed directly from trusted sources.
  
  
• Giving conveyancers and lenders a more complete and up-to-date view of the property earlier in the process.
  
  
• Reducing manual re-entry and document chasing.
  
  
• Providing clearer, more consistent information to consumers.

Industry and policy reports on Smart Data have already identified Open Property as a high-potential scheme, given the size of the market and the current level of friction.

How Open Property fits into the UK Smart Data vision

The UK is positioning itself as a leader in Smart Data, building on lessons from Open Banking. The Government’s Smart Data work and the Smart Data Roadmap identify sectors such as:

• Finance and Open Finance
• Energy and utilities
• Retail and digital markets
• Transport
• Telecommunications
• Homebuying and property
  

Open Property sits within this broader Smart Data story. It is not a one-off project, but part of a cross-economy move towards secure, interoperable data sharing schemes that:

• Put consumers in control of their data.
• Encourage competition and innovation.
• Reduce friction and cost for businesses.
• Enable new digital services that work across sectors.

From Raidiam’s perspective, this is exactly the type of environment where trust infrastructure and standardised APIs matter most. What works for Open Banking and Open Finance in the UK and Brazil is readily extensible to property, energy and other sectors.

How Open Property data sharing would work in practice

For most individual end-users, Open Property should feel simple, even if the underlying technology is advanced. A typical Smart Data-enabled property journey might look like this:

1. A seller instructs their estate agent to create a digital property pack, providing their consent to access relevant property and personal data.
   
   
2. The estate agent or digital property pack provider acquires the data needed in a digitally standardised form, via APIs discoverable and secured by the trust infrastructure, according to the rules of the trust framework.
   
   
3. The data is appropriately and digitally sourced from data providers such as HM Land Registry or local authority records.
   
   
4. Progress is updated in real time, and everyone involved has clearer visibility of what is outstanding.
   
   

Behind the scenes, trust infrastructure, like Raidiam’s, can be used to coordinate:

• Identity and accreditation of participants.
  
  
• Certificate issuance and mutual TLS for secure connections.
  
  
• Authorisation flows so that only permitted organisations can access specific data.
  
  
• Monitoring, conformance and a “kill switch” to quickly suspend or isolate risks, such as cyber incidents or any organisations that breach the open property/smart data rules.

How is Raidiam involved?

The Property Data Trust Framework is a new initiative backed by the UK Government through the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. It aims to define how organisations in the property market can share data securely and consistently, using Smart Data principles. 

The Smart Data Property Trust Framework project is  Proof of Concept is led by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) in partnership with the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) and Raidiam. Funded by the Department for Science, Technology & Innovation’s Regulator Pioneer Fund, this project has received £742,700 in government funding to design and test a Smart Data-enabled approach to property information. 

The Framework will explore:

• How property data from bodies such as HM Land Registry, local authorities and conveyancers can be accessed through secure APIs.
  
  
• How regulatory change and standardisation can support a more digital property market.
  
  
• How to define trust standards, governance models and security rules that everyone in the ecosystem can rely on.
  
  
• How to build a sandbox environment to test these ideas with real participants.

In practice, a Property Data Trust Framework answers three key questions:

1. Who is allowed to access which property data.
   
   
2. On what basis they are allowed to do so, for example consumer consent or regulatory permissions.
   
   
3. How that access happens technically, for example through certificate-based security, OAuth2 and standardised APIs.

Early estimates suggest that applying Smart Data patterns to property could reduce the time, cost and risk of home transactions by up to two thirds. 

Building on Raidiam’s experience delivering trust infrastructure around the world Raidiam will:

• Provide trust infrastructure to help advance understanding of how existing technical solutions can help support Smart Data and digital open property user journeys.
  
  
• Deliver a sandbox environment to enable regulators and industry stakeholders to model and understand how existing regulation may support, or need to change, to enable Smart Property trust ecosystems.
  
  
• Help inform the design of governance, security and consent models that support Smart Data principles.
  
  
• Demonstrate how existing technology can secure, API-based data sharing between  property stakeholders, government departments and financial providers.

→ You can read more in Raidiam’s announcement: Raidiam Partners with OPDA & CLC to Deliver UK’s First Property Data Trust Framework

Benefits of Open Property for key stakeholders

For homebuyers and sellers

• Shorter timelines: less waiting for documents and repeated checks.
  
  
• Greater transparency: clearer understanding of where a transaction is in the process.
  
  
• Higher confidence: fewer surprises late in the process due to missing information.
  
  
• Better digital experiences: more modern tools that show progress and surface issues earlier.
  
  

For conveyancers and legal professionals

• Reduced re-keying: key data arrives digitally from trusted sources instead of via PDFs and scanned documents.
  
  
• Fewer failed transactions: more issues identified earlier.
  
  
• Improved compliance: clearer audit trails and standardised access controls.
  
  
• Time freed for advice rather than administration.
  
  

For lenders and financial institutions

• More reliable data from the outset, leading to better risk assessments.
  
  
• Closer alignment with Open Banking and Open Finance journeys for mortgage products.
  
  
• Opportunities for new services, such as integrated “property plus finance” propositions.
  
  

For government and regulators

• Greater visibility of data flows in the property market.
  
  
• A testbed for Smart Data policy, building on the success of Open Banking.
  
  
• A re-usable pattern that could apply to other sectors such as energy or transport. 

Challenges and considerations

Like any Smart Data scheme, Open Property must address several important challenges:

• Complex ecosystem: many organisations hold parts of the property data, including HM Land Registry, local authorities, lenders, conveyancers and data providers.
  
  
• Data quality and standardisation: records must be accurate and available in consistent formats.
  
  
• Security and privacy: property data includes both personal and financial information, which must be protected and shared only with clear consent.
  
  
• Incentives and business models: stakeholders need clear reasons to adopt new technical patterns and workflows.
  
  
• Cross-sector interoperability: Open Property should be designed so that it can connect to other Smart Data schemes over time, rather than becoming a silo.

This is why the Property Data Trust Framework focuses on both the technical infrastructure and the governance model. A combination of clear rules, robust technology and industry collaboration is needed to make Open Property work at scale.

Open Property and the wider Smart Data movement

Open Property is not happening in isolation. It is part of a wider Smart Data movement in the UK, which includes:

• Calls for evidence on Smart Data opportunities in digital markets.
  
  
• Work on future Smart Data schemes in energy, telecoms and other sectors.
  
  
• Ongoing experimentation, for example, through the FCA’s Smart Data sprints, where Raidiam has also been appointed as a technical delivery partner.
  
  

Raidiam’s Smart Data Ecosystems solution is designed specifically to help governments and industry bodies join these dots, using a common platform for certificates, directories, authorisation and conformance.

Find out more:

• Follow the Proof of Concept progress.
• Follow the Digital Property Markets Steering Group.
• Visit and engage with the  Open Property Data Association (OPDA) and Council for Licensed Conveyancers -CLC.