A government-backed property data trial has tested how housing information can be securely accessed, verified and shared throughout the transaction process.
The Smart Property Data Trust Framework sandbox was set up as a controlled testing environment where organisations could explore how property data might be exchanged securely between approved parties using shared standards, rather than through manual document handling or one-off integrations.
The 12-month project is funded through a £742,700 grant from the government’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund and is being led by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers in partnership with the Open Property Data Association. The initiative also involves Raidiam, property data from HM Land Registry and oversight from the Digital Property Market Steering Group.
PropTech firm Kotini was among the first businesses to test the framework, focusing on how smaller firms could gain access to and reuse verified property data within a fragmented market.
“Every time we wanted to do something new or work with another business, we were paying what I’d call an innovation tax,” said Kieran Witt, founder of Kotini. “We weren’t spending our time improving products for customers — we were spending it dealing with different systems, different providers and lots of admin.”
The sandbox test enabled Kotini to access property data from HM Land Registry, verify the source of the information and share the data onward while retaining a record of its origin.
Before the trial, each new use case would generally have required a separate integration between organisations. The sandbox instead tested a shared framework allowing participants to connect once and reuse that connection as additional organisations joined.
Witt continued: “We’re really pleased we’ve been able to prove the connection works with Land Registry data. Now, anyone else who joins later doesn’t need to build that connection again – they can just plug in.”
“It genuinely democratises the property industry.”
Maria Harris, chair of the OPDA, said the findings were a major step forward for a smart data led property industry.
“There’s some amazing work being done across the industry and the recent Lloyds, Connells, LMS collaboration is a great example of that. The sandbox is innovative and supports the whole ecosystem to work together in that way. Because it’s not a closed environment, anyone can plug in and test data sharing.
“While the sandbox will continue through to later this year, including further testing and collaborative hackathons, this first use case marks an important milestone. It shows that a more connected, trusted approach to property data is no longer just a policy ambition, but something that has now been proven to work in practice.”
Stephen Ward, director of dtrategy, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, added: “What we’ve proven with the sandbox is the ability to reuse and share data openly across the property ecosystem for the first time. This is an exciting development for the industry, and we want more organisations to follow Kotini’s lead and help us to build the trust framework, governance, and standards that will allow us to transform the home moving process.”
The sandbox project is now moving on to testing practical applications and business use cases. A four-day hackathon is planned to bring organisations together to identify potential uses, define operational challenges and examine possible solutions.
The project is intended to involve both technical and non-technical participants, including those working on customer processes, operational workflows and service design.
Findings from the initiative will be published to provide insight into what worked during the trial, where challenges emerged and what changes may be needed for wider adoption across the property sector.
