News & Media

AP1s ARE GOING DIGITAL IN

Digital AP1 countdown

Whether you deal with residential and/or commercial property transactions, we've got you covered.

Find out more about Digital AP1s


 

March 06, 2023

​THE GREAT CONVEYANCING CRUNCH: PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS DOUBLE IN A DECADE WHILE CONVEYANCING FIRMS FALL BY 10%

It’s been a decade marked by unprecedented change, not least for the property market. Whilst average house prices in England have risen by 77%[1] since 2012, the latest data analysis from Search Acumen indicates a similar trajectory for annual property transaction volumes, almost doubling in a decade from 714,000, to over 1.3 million

December 15, 2022

VOLUME OF PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS OUTPACING LAW FIRMS, INCREASING 15% YEAR ON YEAR

With recession confirmed and house price falls predicted next year by up to 9% according to last week’s OBR report, property transaction levels remain remarkably high in a race for home movers to complete.

November 22, 2022

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE HMRC’S PROPERTY TRANSACTION RESULTS, WHICH SHOW THAT THERE IS A SMALL BUT STEADY INCREASE.

​As house prices embark on a slow decline, the gentle swing towards a buyer’s market is feeling more real by the day.

November 16, 2022

UK HOUSE PRICE GROWTH STALLED BETWEEN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER

Today’s data is further evidence of a turning tide for house prices, reflecting the same pattern of declining growth we have started to see emerge over the last two months.

October 19, 2022

TODAY’S 1.1% RISE IN HOUSE PRICES FOR AUGUST MAY BE THE LAST WE SEE FOR SOME TIME AS CONSUMER CONFIDENCE HITS THE BREAKS

Although gilts and sterling rallied on Monday as the Government heeds market calls for economic stability, the last two weeks have shown us that anything could change at the drop of a hat.

August 24, 2022

BIGGEST CONVEYANCERS CAPTURE MARKET SHARE IN Q2 AS PROPERTY DEALS REMAIN 34% ABOVE PRE-COVID LEVELS

The biggest conveyancing firms across England and Wales saw their market share reach a two-year high in Q2 2022, according to the latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data and insight provider.

August 17, 2022

HOUSE PRICES STALL AFTER RECORD BREAKING PERIOD OF GROWTH AS WE ENTER A NEW ERA OF ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY

“While the ONS HPI results show another month of house price growth, we can see that this growth has slowed significantly, and, if we look at other HPIs, we should expect negative growth to be reflected in future iterations of the ONS data. We are seeing the end of an era of consistent rapid house price growth and the start of a new chapter for the housing market characterised by economic instability.

August 11, 2022

WHY COMMERCIAL LAW FIRMS RISK GETTING LEFT BEHIND AS AP1 DEADLINE APPROACHES

The submission of AP1 applications online has become the latest marker in the sand for industry digitisation. In fact, HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) hard switch to digital AP1 submissions forms part of a wider three-year digitisation road map to be published later this year. Just as we watched tax go digital, property is finally catching up.

August 04, 2022

INTEREST RATE RISE REACTION

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen (property data insight and technology provider), comments on today’s decision from the Bank of England to raise interest rates by 0.5% and its effect on the housing market:

July 21, 2022

LOW STOCK IMPACTS TRANSACTION VOLUMES, BUT THE CONVEYANCING SECTOR REMAINS STRETCHED

Transactions are naturally down from the incredible heights we saw in 2021, and we have seen a month on month decline with volumes tracking below pre pandemic figures.

July 20, 2022

SUPPLY AND DEMAND IMBALANCE SUPPORTS CONTINUED PRICE GROWTH DESPITE INTENSIFYING COST OF LIVING PRESSURES

The latest ONS data demonstrates that, despite cost of living pressures acting as a brake on price growth, house prices remain extremely high by historic standards.

May 18, 2022

HIGH PRICES A SOBERING READ FOR BUYERS

The latest ONS data reports a 9.8% house price increase compared to March 2021. The annual growth rate slowed down a little compared to February, but monthly ebb and flow is normal and not indicative necessarily of wider trend.

May 13, 2022

DEMAND STORMS AHEAD OF COST PRESSURES – BOOSTING CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN Q1

The first quarter of 2022 has ended with a bang in the building industry. The figures for March report an 7.3% annual increase, which was the strongest annual rate since records began in 2014.This serves to highlight the rampant demand across the property sector for residential and commercial developments alike.

April 19, 2022

DIGITALISATION CUTS TIME SPENT ON DUE DILIGENCE BY 50%

Firms processing real estate transactions could save on average 115 working hours per month by adopting digital tools, according to research by Search Acumen.

April 13, 2022

HOUSE PRICES CONTINUE TO CLIMB IN Q1 2022

This latest data highlights the continued remarkable rise of house prices, with February 2022 marking a 10.9% increase compared to February 2021 and a 10.2% uplift from January 2022.

April 07, 2022

THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUCCESSFUL LAW FIRMS WILL THRIVE BY FORGING DEEP TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS

We are at a tipping point in the legal sector. Since we set up Search Acumen, we have been working with a cohort of forward-thinking firms, banging the drum for digitisation and the broad adoption of a digital first mindset.

March 23, 2022

A STRONG START TO 2022 FOR HOUSE PRICES

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “Historically, January is a slower month for house price growth as people pause and take stock of their finances at the start of a New Year.

March 01, 2022

TRANSACTIONS SMASH 300,000 THRESHOLD AS CONVEYANCING CRUNCH CONTINUES IN Q4

The conveyancing market across England and Wales registered a record 306,237 completed transactions between October and December last year, according to the latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

February 22, 2022

PROPERTY PROFESSIONALS MUST PRIORITISE DIGITAL TO BEST FACILITATE RISING DEMAND

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “Today’s property transaction figures from HMRC demonstrate a return to more normal levels of activity in the housing market.

February 16, 2022

INFLATED PRICES FUELLED BY SUSTAINED DEMAND AND ONGOING SHORTAGE OF STOCK

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “December’s figures represent a full year of rising house prices across the UK, driven by sustained demand which has progressively outstripped supply during the course of the year.

February 11, 2022

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY RESPONDS TO DEMAND WITH INCREASED OUTPUT

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says:“December’s figures highlight how the construction sector has risen to the challenge of continued buyer demand as the year came to a close.

January 21, 2022

2022 A TIME OF RECKONING FOR PROPERTY FIRMS’ DIGITAL STRATEGIES

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “December’s transactions figures mark a solid end to what was an extremely fast paced and enormously busy 12 months.

January 19, 2022

2022 CRUNCH POINT FOR CONVEYANCERS AS CHANGES IN CONSUMER MINDSET SET TO STAY

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “November’s figures point to continued strong demand that is outstripping supply and pushing up prices. This demonstrates the scale of Covid-19’s impact on how and where people want to live.

January 14, 2022

DEMAND OUTWEIGHS COST PRESSURES IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

November’s figures are reflective of a stronger sense of confidence in the building industry. Construction firms continued to respond well to the reopening of the UK economy and sustained demand across the property market.

January 12, 2022

AS LAND REGISTRY DIGITIZES SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES CONVEYANCING PLATFORM

Property data, insight and technology provider Search Acumen has launched its residential platform, an end-to-end legal technology solution that enables lawyers to manage the entire residential conveyancing process through a central dashboard.

December 15, 2021

HOUSE PRICES FUELLED BY PERSISTENT MARKET DYNAMICS

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “These latest figures show that house prices continue to climb due to ongoing market forces driving pricing, albeit at a less frenetic pace than at the peak of the Stamp Duty holiday.

December 10, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR OCTOBER 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “In Q3 2021 the construction industry saw signs of a slight recovery as the peak of supplier delays began to lessen.

December 06, 2021

DIGITISATION OF THE LAND REGISTRY AP1 PROCESS MARKS A MAJOR MILESTONE IN FUTURE PROOFING THE PROPERTY SECTOR

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen said: “This step by HM Land Registry (HMLR) is a concrete example of the measures needed to future proof our nation’s real estate as a top tier global asset class.

December 02, 2021

TALK PROPERTY: A DIGITAL FIRST MINDSET - 5 WAYS TO POSITIVELY DISRUPT REAL ESTATE WORKFLOW

During this Talk Property event, Search Acumen Managing Director Andrew Lloyd joined a panel of industry experts: Julia Streets, Founder & CEO of Streets Consulting, Ian Wilkinson, Partner at Osborne Clarke, Katherine Crowley, Legal Director at Womble Bond Dickinson, and Owain Morgan from Legal and General to discuss tech disruption in real estate.

November 30, 2021

TRANSACTIONS REACH HIGHEST LEVELS SINCE Q4 2014 AS THE NUMBER OF ACTIVE CONVEYANCING FIRMS RECOVERS TO PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS

The 100 most active conveyancing firms across England and Wales collectively registered nearly 80,000 completed transactions between July and September this year, according to the latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

November 23, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR OCTOBER

“The property market has operated at a frenetic pace since the SDLT holiday was introduced last year. It was inevitable that we would see a drop off in transactions immediately following the reintroduction of pre-pandemic tax levels, as buyers and sellers made a huge push to complete sales before the deadline.

November 19, 2021

LEAPFROGGING ANTIQUATED PROCESSES WITH TECHNOLOGY AND AN APPETITE FOR INNOVATION

A case study with Scott Gair, Partner at Dean Wilson featured in Legal Futures. The property market has been operating at breakneck speed over the past few months as a combination of Covid-19 dynamics and Stamp Duty holiday incentives have created the perfect storm.

November 17, 2021

THE RETURN-TO-WORK FUELS RECORD HOUSE PRICES – SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON SEPTEMBER ONS HPI

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “As the world adjusts to post-pandemic realities, we are seeing some of the biggest shifts in how people live and work for a generation.

November 11, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUTION OUTPUT SEP 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “Supply chain disruption combined with rising costs and labour shortages have caused rife delays across UK industries during the third quarter of this year.

October 21, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR SEPTEMBER

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “These latest figures reflect the ambition of homeowners to get property transactions over the line whilst the stamp duty financial incentive still stood.

October 20, 2021

HOUSE PRICES RISE AS DEMAND AFFIRMS THE SELLERS-MARKET

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “These latest figures demonstrate how the supply-demand imbalance is continuing to drive up housing prices, albeit at a slower rate compared to price influxes in June 2021 due to an element of demand-side normalisation as the end of the Stamp Duty holiday loomed.

October 13, 2021

DISCONNECT BETWEEN SUPPLY AND DEMAND IS NOTHING NEW FOR THE HOUSING SECTOR

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments on today’s data from the Office for National Statistics: “The pain of supply issues across large swathes of the UK economy is nothing new to the housing market, where demand and supply have been disconnected for almost as long as memory serves.

September 24, 2021

AI AND BIG DATA PROMISE A REVOLUTION FOR REAL ESTATE

As featured in Property Weeks's Perspectives, alongside Victoria Duxbury from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Katherine Crowley from Womble Bond Dickinson. Read the full article here.

September 21, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR AUGUST 2021

Today’s statistics show a significant uptick in transactions, quashing concerns that the property recovery might be a short-term flash in the pan that relies solely on the stamp duty incentive.

September 15, 2021

HOUSE PRICES LOSE MOMENTUM, BUT NO SIGN OF PRE-PANDEMIC PRICE CORRECTION

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “The falling rate of house price growth in July is a sign of slowing sales momentum as the stamp duty rush fades, but let’s not forget an 8% annual rise is still significant by any normal standards.

September 15, 2021

WHY IT’S TIME FOR LAWYERS TO PART WITH PAPER

Guest blog by Jonathan Achampong, Residential Property Partner, Wedlake Bell

September 10, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR JULY 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “After a frenetic year in the housing market, stock levels are severely depleted as a result of more than 12 months of exceptional demand.

August 24, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S PROPERTY TRANSACTION DATA FOR JULY 2021

After the mad rush to beat the SDLT holiday deadline at the end of June, there was always going to be a drop off in activity over the summer months and we’ve seen that play out in today’s figures with transactions down by almost two thirds in the space of one month.

August 18, 2021

RED HOT HOUSE PRICES LEAVE FIRST-TIME BUYERS AND LEGAL PROFESSIONALS WITH A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB

"The 13.2% annual increase in house prices for June, fuelled by a rush of Stamp Duty-averse homebuyers, has left a mountain to climb not only for first-time buyers’ deposits, but also for legal professionals in terms of processing transactions on time.

August 11, 2021

LONDON LOOSENS GRIP ON HIGH-VALUE PROPERTY MARKET AS HOUSE PRICES SURGE

Surging house prices over the last year have loosened London’s grip on the high-value property market, according to analysis of official data by Search Acumen, the property data and insight provider.

August 10, 2021

TIDAL WAVE OF TRANSACTIONS AS CONVEYANCING FIRMS ENDURE BUSIEST PERIOD OF HOMEBUYER DEMAND SINCE RECORDS BEGAN

The number of property transactions registered in England and Wales climbed 20% over the last quarter, rising to 290,248 in Q2 2021, up from 241,916 in Q1 2021, according to the latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

August 02, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES NEW DIGITAL ONBOARDING SOLUTION ECOS FOLLOWING ITS ACQUISITION BY INFOTRACK

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has today added electronic client onboarding solution (eCOS) to its suite of digital conveyancing tools, equipping legal firms with a fast, digital process to communicate with their clients.

July 20, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES INTERACTIVE DATA TOOL TO PROVIDE EARLY WARNING OF PROPERTY TRANSACTION RISKS

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has launched a new tool that provides real-time property data to lawyers via interactive reports, empowering them to advise clients earlier and progress transactions more efficiently than ever before.

July 09, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR MAY 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data demonstrates how the construction industry is still operating at pace as it continues efforts to keep up with strong levels of demand in the housing sector.

June 22, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR MAY

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen says: “The latest data from HMRC highlights the volatility of transactions ahead of the end of Stamp Duty holiday cut offs

June 18, 2021

EXPERT REACTION: SHOULD HIPS BE REVIVED TO HELP SPEED UP THE HOUSING MARKET?

The Negotiator asks three leading industry figures whether HIPs were ever a good idea, and how property sales can be speeded up. Read the full article here.

June 16, 2021

GAP BETWEEN HOUSING STOCK AND DEMAND CONTINUES TO FUEL PRICES

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data indicates the new build premium shows no signs of abating.

June 11, 2021

HOT CONSTRUCTION SECTOR CONTINUES TO FEED ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “Despite the drop in monthly construction output following a strong March, the construction sector remains one of the leading lights in the UK’s economic recovery.

June 01, 2021

CONVEYANCING CRUNCH DEEPENS AS THE PROPERTY MARKET RECOVERS BY DOUBLE IN Q1

The number of property transactions registered in England and Wales climbed 26% over the last quarter, rising to 241,916 in Q1 2021, up from 192,063 in Q4 2020, according to our latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker.

May 21, 2021

UNCERTAINTY OVER STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY TRIGGERS PULL BACK FROM HOME PURCHASES

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows the fragility of the UK property market. Concerns over whether activity levels will sustain once the stamp duty holiday is wound down are mounting.

May 19, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMLR'S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR MARCH 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows the scale of the premium buyers are having to pay to get their hands on new builds.

May 12, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR MARCH 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest set of data underlines that the construction sector is proving to be a boon for the UK economy.

May 10, 2021

STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY TRIGGERS 22% RISE IN MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS – EQUIVALENT TO OVER 171,000 EXTRA SALES

The current Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) holiday has helped deliver a property market stimulus that has far outweighed the immediate response to the 2007/08 financial crisis, according to new analysis by Search Acumen, the property data and insight provider.

April 30, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENT ON HMRC'S QUARTERLY STAMP DUTY STATISTICS

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows that the owners and buyers of prime and super-prime properties are driving a large proportion of activity in the property market.

April 21, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR MARCH

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This data comes as no surprise. The Stamp Duty holiday has once again turbo charged the property market – but not necessarily for the better.

April 13, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR FEBRUARY 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows construction continues to cement itself as one of the key contributing sectors powering the UK’s economic recovery.

April 09, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HALIFAX'S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR MARCH 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows that the housing market is still receptive to government stimulus measures.

March 31, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON NATIONWIDE'S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR MARCH

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data shows activity in the property market started to level off ahead of the end of the initial Stamp Duty holiday.

March 31, 2021

FURTHER DIGITISATION OF PROPERTY DATA IN STOCKPORT WILL CUT SEARCH TIMES

Christian Woodhouse, Head of Data and Strategic Products at Search Acumen, says: “Greater digitisation of property data in Stockport represents a further shift in weaning England and Wales’s property market off processes designed to serve a bygone era.

March 23, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “These latest figures in part reveal the scale of stimulus the final months of the original Stamp Duty holiday injected into the property market.

March 23, 2021

COADJUTE SIGNS UP LEADING CONVEYANCING FIRMS TO ITS DIGITAL NETWORK

Coadjute, a blockchain network for the UK property market, revealed that conveyancing software firm Osprey Approach, property data provider company Search Acumen, and conveyancing firms AVRillo and PCS Legal are to join their digital network.

March 18, 2021

THE TIMES - NEW SILKS MUST WAIT TO CELEBRATE

The cases, the chatter, the chaos: what’s really going on in the law.

March 12, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS’ CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR JANUARY 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “This latest data reveals the impact the anticipated earlier end date for the Stamp Duty holiday has had on activity in the construction industry before the announced extension.

March 12, 2021

THE ROLE OF PROPTECH IN THE RUN UP TO STAMP DUTY CUT OFF

As featured in Mortgage Introducer, click here for the full article. The past few months have seen a spectacular bounce back in the property market as it emerged from one of the lowest points on record last Summer.

March 03, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE DRAWBACKS OF EXTENDING THE STAMP DUTY HOLIDAY UNTIL JUNE

Andy Sommerville Director of Search Acumen, comments: “Today’s stamp duty extension is not just welcome news for thousands of homebuyers-in-waiting.

February 23, 2021

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS JUMP 27% IN ONE MONTH AS CONVEYANCERS RUSH TO MEET THE STAMP DUTY CUT OFF

23rd February 2021 - The number of property transactions registered in England and Wales jumped 27% in just a month between November and December 2020, according to the latest edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

February 23, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC'S MONTHLY TRANSACTIONS FOR JANUARY 2021

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, says: “These latest figures show that the uplift the Stamp Duty holiday provided to the property market has waned.

February 19, 2021

OVER 10 MILLION SQ FT OF OFFICE SPACE ‘LOST’ AS COVID HIT

More than 10 million sq ft of rateable office space disappeared in England and Wales in the year before the coronavirus pandemic hit, according to new research. Read the full article in Property Week, here.

February 17, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS' HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR DECEMBER 2020

“This latest data illustrates the level of the price premium consumers often have to swallow when purchasing a new build.

February 12, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS’ CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FIGURES FOR DECEMBER 2020

"These latest figures show the construction industry is one of the most resilient sectors of the UK economy. The uptick in private housing output over the last month has been partly driven by housebuilders responding to elevated levels of demand in the market. Strong buyer interest has been stimulated by the Stamp Duty holiday and a desire by some to upgrade their properties as a result of working and spending more time at home.

January 26, 2021

DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

The pandemic has been a wake-up call for lawyers that has fundamentally challenged our fondness for paper.

January 20, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS’S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR NOVEMBER 2020

“This latest data highlights that issues are beginning to emerge in the housing market that could put downward pressure on prices.

January 18, 2021

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES DATA REPORTS AND INSURANCE TO HELP BEAT THE STAMP DUTY CRUNCH

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has launched new data reports and insurance to enable real estate lawyers to identify risk upfront and help clients progress transactions ahead of the stamp duty cut off.

January 15, 2021

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR RECOVERS FROM PANDEMIC SHOCK TO OUTPUT

“This latest data shows how the construction sector is one of the few elements of the economy that is performing near to pre-pandemic levels.

January 15, 2021

OVERSEAS OWNED REAL ESTATE DROPS 4%

Overseas companies own 4,000 fewer properties in England and Wales since the EU referendum, according to research by Search Acumen.

December 10, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT FOR OCTOBER 2020

“This latest data shows an uplift in construction output, driven in part by rampant buyer activity in the housing market and improving confidence levels among housebuilders.

November 27, 2020

VALUE OF PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS UNDERTAKEN BY COMMERCIAL BUYERS PLUNGES 71% SINCE LOCKDOWN

The value of property transactions in England and Wales undertaken by commercial buyers has plunged 71% year-on-year since the first introduction of lockdown restrictions* to stop the spread of coronavirus, reveals the latest edition of our Commercial Real Estate Insights series.

November 27, 2020

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS PLUMMET 71% SINCE FIRST LOCKDOWN

The value of commercial property transactions has dived by 71% year-on-year since the first coronavirus national lockdown was introduced, new data has revealed. Read the full article in Estates Gazette, here.

November 25, 2020

WHY AI COULD HOLD THE KEY TO REVOLUTIONISING LEGAL WORK ON UK PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

This year has shown us that more than ever technology is an essential part of how we work.

November 20, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S Q3 2020 SDLT RECEIPTS

"This latest data reveals the scale of demand that has surged into the property market.

November 19, 2020

ACTIVE FIRMS LEAP 56% AND TRANSACTIONS DOUBLE FROM Q2 – BUT CAN THE RECOVERY LAST?

19th November 2020 – The conveyancing market regained its footing in Q3 2020 as demand returned to the property market following a turbulent Q2, according to the Q3 2020 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider

November 18, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS’S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR SEPTEMBER 2020

“This latest data shows that the recovery in house prices is spreading across different types of properties, with new builds experiencing a slight uplift.

November 12, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS’S DATA ON CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT IN GREAT BRITAIN FOR Q3 2020

“This latest data underlines the scale of the sharp bounce back the construction sector has undergone since the troughs of lockdown.

November 02, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES AMAZON-BASED AI PROPERTY TOOLS

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has introduced two machine learning tools to speed up the legal due diligence involved in property transactions.

October 09, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE PROPOSED CONVEYANCING STANDARDS BILL

The proposed Conveyancing Standards Bill has the right message when it comes to ensuring consumer protection for people making possibly the single most important investment of their lives.

September 30, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG HOUSE BUILDING; NEW BUILD DWELLINGS, ENGLAND: JANUARY TO JUNE 2020

“This latest data reveals the scale of the damaging impact that strict lockdown measures and the showdown of building sites had on the construction sector.

September 25, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE HBSG'S INDUSTRY PLEDGE

“While MHCLG has previously provided some pertinent guidance for improving the home buying and selling process, more needs to be done at a time when the market is struggling with delays and failing to match rising levels of demand. Industry commitment is now needed to take its guidance one step further.

September 17, 2020

RECOVER FOR THE FUTURE NOT THE PAST

Covid-19 has presented the world with the worst health crisis in over a century, prompting governments and business leaders to work closely, pool resources and limit the impact of the virus. Amidst the chaos, it has acted as an unexpected catalyst for several changes in some of the UK’s leading sectors.

September 16, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR JUNE 2020

“These latest figures show that the release of pent up demand following the easing of restrictions have put upward pressure on prices across all segments of England’s property market, particularly in the new build sector.

September 10, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES DATA SNAPSHOT AND NEW DATA LAYERS TO IDENTIFY RISK AND HELP PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS PROGRESS

10th September 2020, London: Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has launched a new report aimed at helping real estate lawyers to identify risk early on, progress transactions more efficiently and better manage the sharp rise in demand in the UK’s property market.

September 09, 2020

NEW PROGRAMME LOOKS AT THE INDUSTRY INITIATIVES LEADING THE HOUSING SECTOR INTO THE FUTURE

The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and ITN Productions Industry News have co-produced a news-style programme “The Future of Housing” exploring the challenges and triumphs of the housing sector today, hopes for the future and the partnerships making a real difference in a pandemic-informed world.

September 02, 2020

WORKING TOGETHER TO PUT DATA AT HEART OF THE UK PLANNING SYSTEM

The recent months may have been filled with uncertainty, but now it is time to act decisively on some of the clear learnings that have emerged. While Covid-19 exposed the vulnerability of those in the property sector who had not already adopted digital practices, we have been encouraged by the agility that many have shown to bridge this gap.

August 26, 2020

CONVEYANCING COMEBACK GATHERS PACE IN JUNE AFTER COVID-19 CLIFF-EDGE

The conveyancing market experienced a precipitous fall at the start of Q2 2020 as the entire property market was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, before May and June brought green shoots of recovery, according to the Q2 2020 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

August 21, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR JULY 2020

July’s transaction data exposes the stimulus that raising the Stamp Duty threshold has injected into the property market.

August 19, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR APRIL 2020

“This latest data reveals the positive path the UK property market was on before the pandemic hit.

August 07, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HALIFAX’S HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR JULY 2020

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “This latest data shows the UK property market’s recovery is continuing to gather momentum.

August 06, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG PLANNING CONSULTATION

“Few areas of the industry are calling out for transformation more than the UK’s planning system which places a greater emphasis on documents rather than data and local officials’ knowledge of the areas they directly manage.

August 06, 2020

THE 2020 PLANS FOR NEW PLANNING PERMISSION LAWS IN FULL

What are they proposing? Under the new reforms, every local authority will have a Local Plan that sets clear rules for development

August 05, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES "REAL-TIME" DUE DILIGENCE TOOL

Data Snapshot provides a composition of titles and up to 40 sets of property data updated in real-time creating “a more immediate, efficient and intuitive experience”, according to Search Acumen.

July 31, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S STAMP DUTY RECEIPTS FOR Q2 2020

“This latest data reveals the severe impact the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown measures had on the UK property market.

July 23, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG’S LATEST HELP TO BUY STATISTICS

The latest Help to Buy data reveals the severe impact the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic had on a key driver of activity in the UK’s property market.

July 21, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR JUNE

This latest data shows an uplift in buyers and sellers’ confidence levels, sparked by the easing of restrictions as we see more individuals return to work and bars and restaurants open

June 29, 2020

THE UK PROPERTY MARKET ‘BACK TO NORMAL LEVELS’, ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT

Property technology company Coadjute reports a continuation of the upward trend in the UK property market, with most key indicators showing volumes back to pre-lockdown levels.

June 29, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON COADJUTE'S PROPERTY INSIGHTS REPORT - WEEK 25

The latest Property Insights Report points to a “U” in the market as conveyancing volumes rebound at the end of June to levels last seen in early March before the full force of the UK lockdown hit. While this is positive step, the road to recovery for many sectors in the UK remains unclear.

June 19, 2020

PROPERTY MARKET SURGING WITH SALES ENQUIRIES NOW 54% AHEAD OF PRELOCKDOWN LEVELS

LONDON 18th JUNE: An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market continues to recover with another strong rise in sales activity, accompanied by an increase in exchanges and completions.

June 11, 2020

PROPERTY VIEWINGS BOOKED IN THE UK OVER THE LAST 4-WEEKS SHOWS AN INCREASE OF 1014%, ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT

LONDON 10th JUNE: An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market continues to recover with Property Viewings Booked up by 36% which, viewed over 4-weeks shows an increase of 1014% recovering to just 19% off pre-Lockdown work levels.

May 29, 2020

SALES IN OFFER STAGE OVERTAKE NUMBER IN EXCHANGE AND COMPLETION FOR FIRST TIME SINCE LOCKDOWN, ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT

LONDON 28th MAY: An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market is clearly recovering with residential property sales in offer stage up by 126% in week 21 of the estate agent calendar.

May 22, 2020

UK PROPERTY MARKET RETURNING STRONGLY WITH VIEWINGS BOOKED UP BY 188% IN LAST WEEK ACCORDING TO A RECENT REPORT

LONDON 21st MAY: An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market is now consistently showing signs of recovery with viewings booked up by 188% in the last week.

May 21, 2020

DAILY AVERAGE OF REGISTRATIONS FOR PROPERTY SALES IN THE UK UP BY 24% IN JUST LAST WEEK ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT

LONDON 14th MAY: An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market is already showing signs of revival with daily average of registrations for property sales up by 24% in just last week.

May 20, 2020

KEEP THE MOMENTUM OF DIGITISATION GOING URGES INDUSTRY DATA PROVIDER

The property sector must maintain the progress it has made in a very short space of time urges Search Acumen’s Andy Somerville in an interview with Today’s Conveyancer discussing the release of their latest Conveyancing Tracker.

May 19, 2020

CONVEYANCING CORONACOASTER IN Q1 AS MONTHLY ACTIVITY HIT FOUR- YEAR HIGH AND SEVEN-YEAR LOW

19 May 2020 – The conveyancing market experienced a turbulent ride in Q1 2020 as a post-election bounce in January was swiftly curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic resulting in a steep downturn in March, according to the Q1 2020 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

May 18, 2020

DIGITISATION UNDER DURESS HERALDS A BETTER FUTURE FOR PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

As the most unwelcome visitor to homes across the UK, Covid-19 has placed an unprecedented strain on the property market as people shield themselves and socially distance to guard against its worst effects.

May 07, 2020

ADVANCE BOOKINGS FOR PROPERTY VIEWINGS UP 182% IN 4 WEEKS ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT

An industry group formed by Coadjute - the Blockchain leader in PropTech – of leading property software businesses suggests that the UK housing market might be poised for recovery with advance bookings for viewings on house sales surging 182% in the last 4 weeks.

April 28, 2020

LEADING PROPERTY TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES UNITE TO REVEAL THE DETAILED PICTURE OF ACTIVITY IN UK PROPERTY MARKET

Blockchain property technology firm Coadjute is working with leading UK property software companies to collect and analyse “on the ground activity and trends” for the industry to use during the Covid-19 crisis.

April 28, 2020

HOW WILL GEOSPATIAL AND LOCATION TECHNOLOGY CHANGE THE FUTURE OF HOME BUYING

For most people, geospatial data conjures up visuals of maps. But to fully grasp this vast and insightful resource, we first need to understand what geospatial data is and why it’s so important to the real estate sector.

April 22, 2020

BUSINESS IS NOT ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORM TO PASS. IT’S ABOUT LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN

Companies are not responsible for coronavirus, but they are responsible for how they respond to it. We have seen a lot of talk of heroes and villains in the media over recent weeks.

April 17, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN AND WOMBLE BOND DICKINSON TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE OF PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

There is little doubt that technological innovation has the ability to completely revolutionise the way we think about property transactions.

March 25, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG Q4 PLANNING APPLICATION STATISTICS

“At the time, Q4 2019 felt particularly turbulent – with the prospect of a no deal Brexit and a pre-Christmas election purdah – but it now pales in comparison to the current UK lockdown.

March 24, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR FEBRUARY

Today’s transaction figures demonstrate the nascent ‘Boris Bounce’ which boosted the property market in January and February. In today’s world, this seems like a distant reality and we expect the months that follow to tell a very different story.

March 18, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON CLC

“The potential for transforming the property sector over the next ten years is huge. We discuss three central changes in data, skills and regulation which will be crucial to achieving this shift.

March 12, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HOUSING SECRETARY, ROBERT JENRICK’S PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE DOCUMENT

The plans announced today by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick are comprehensive and far ranging – which may be the stimulus needed to throw off England’s housebuilding torpor

February 21, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR JANUARY

“The start of the year saw a slight uplift in the property market as the backlog of transactions that were put on hold at the end of 2019 start to be unleashed given the improved political climate at the very end of last year.

February 21, 2020

CONVEYANCING MARKET NOSE-DIVES IN Q4 AS POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY QUASHES TRANSACTION VOLUMES AND ACTIVE FIRMS

The conveyancing industry felt the full brunt of political and economic uncertainty in the final quarter of 2019

February 12, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSEBUILDING STATS, Q3 2019

“No one could accuse the nation’s housebuilders of giving us too much of a good thing. Right across the board – from the private sector to housing associations, and local authorities – building figures have plateaued.

January 30, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON RECENT TRENDS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT OF HOUSING

Today’s statistics show that Britain’s house construction is experiencing healthy growth – particularly in the private sector. While there is much to hearten, we must not be complacent.

January 24, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG ENGLISH HOUSING SURVEY 2018 TO 2019

“The housing ladder needs some more rungs. It’s all very well saying that anyone can buy but when the percentage of homeowners has stood still since 2013 it seems clear navigating the housing ladder is too precarious for most people to do so safely."

January 22, 2020

PLANNING AROUND HISTORY

We live on an ancient isle and after more than a millennium of civilised development, there isn’t a square foot of English and Welsh land that hasn’t been touched by the rule of law. In fact, since William the Conquerer’s Domesday Book, we have been a nation obsessed with documenting and legislating the land beneath our feet.

January 17, 2020

2020 – THE YEAR FOR ACTION

While 2019 may be remembered as a year of Brexit-fuelled delays and indecision on a national level, many in the property and legal industries will hope 2020 heralds a year where pent-up demand can be converted into business growth.

January 15, 2020

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION FIGURES

“The UK construction industry stands on a threshold – advancing forwards to achieve new heights or slipping backwards to stagnation. Growth has been slow, but the UK construction market still stands tall in Europe. While the volume of construction orders has advanced only incrementally in the past year, the value of orders is at an all-time high and so is the number of construction firms in operation.

December 19, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG Q3 PLANNING APPLICATION STATISTICS

The end of the decade can’t come soon enough for those in the housebuilding trade. Since the financial crisis we’ve seen rates of planning applications flat line for nearly a whole decade.

December 18, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX

October’s statistics point towards a post-election bounce

December 12, 2019

£21M A DAY: COMMERCIAL SPENDING ON REAL ESTATE DROPS FROM 2017-19 AS BREXIT DELAYS BITE

Brexit uncertainty has contributed to a £20.6m drop in the daily amount spent by commercial buyers on real estate transactions across England and Wales since 2017, as the property market stutters through a challenging year.

December 03, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN ENHANCES COMMERCIAL PROPERTY PLATFORM TO HELP LAWYERS INSPECT PUBLIC DATA SOURCES

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has enhanced its commercial real estate due diligence platform, ForeSite, by adding new datasets to identify property transaction risks.

November 28, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON DIGITAL INNOVATIONS IN THE UK PROPERTY MARKET

We’re in a very exciting time for proptech innovation where we’re able to back up the market hype around distributed ledger technology with real action.

November 19, 2019

YEAR-TO-DATE CONVEYANCING CASELOAD DOWN BY 100,000 SINCE 2016 AS LARGEST FIRMS TAKE BIGGER BITE OF THE MARKET

19 November 2019 – The conveyancing industry has been forced to react as the market slowdown is aggravated by Brexit uncertainties, according to the Q3 2019 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

November 14, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG HOUSING SUPPLY STATISTICS

The net increase in housing stock could be seen as a proxy barometer for the nation’s economic outlook. You don’t have to be a meteorologist to know we aren’t in the sunlit uplands, but rays of sunshine are starting to break through.

November 05, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HM LAND REGISTRY COMPLEX COMMERCIAL TRANSACTIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT LAUNCH

“Managing due diligence and planning around complex commercial real estate transactions can be fraught with risk. Relying on paper trails which take months to collate mean that problems can be overlooked, and issues not identified until a development is in process. This can often cost projects time and money.

October 21, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION FIGURES

The UK construction industry stays the course in the face of political headwinds and an absence of certainty at the helm. The latest ONS construction figures are a testament to how the UK property market continues to be an attractive investment destination.

October 18, 2019

CROW ACT PROTECTS HUGE CHUNK OF LAND FROM DEVELOPMENT

On average, about 4.5% of the land in England’s local authorities has restrictions on development under the Countryside and Rights of Way (CRoW) Act, the analysis shows. The law, derived from nearly 1,000 years of custom, gives the public right of access to more than a million hectares across England in total, even if the land is privately held.

October 10, 2019

COMMERCIAL BUYERS OF NEW BUILD REAL ESTATE INCREASINGLY LOOKING BEYOND THE M25 AS MARKET FALTERS

10 October 2019 – Commercial buyers’ appetite for new build properties is increasingly focusing outside London in 2019, with 83% of transactions falling outside the M25 – up from 74% in 2017, according to insight analysis from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

October 08, 2019

ADOPTING A DIGITAL MINDSET TO FUTURE PROOF THE INDUSTRY

While we have witnessed forward momentum in recent years through new digital tools and the release of data sets by HM Land Registry (HMLR), real estate transactions in England and Wales still take longer to complete than many of us would like.

October 01, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE DIGITISATION OF THE LOCAL LAND CHARGES REGISTER FOR THE LONDON BOROUGH OF LAMBETH

It’s great to see yet another local authority able to make the switch to HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) newly opened, central digital Local Land Charges (LLC) register. Property professionals involved in buying and selling property in Lambeth will soon see how the ability to immediately execute LLC searches will significantly improve property transactions in the borough.

September 25, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG PLANNING APPLICATIONS IN ENGLAND

Today’s government figures show that 2019 is turning out to be one of the worst years for planning applications since the Financial Crisis. While this is worrying, it should not be all that surprising.

September 24, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN TALKS TO TECH TALK RADIO ON FUTURE PROOFING THE LEGAL SECTOR

Our Managing Director, Andrew Lloyd talks to Tech Talk Radio on all things technology, data and innovation in the real estate world.

September 23, 2019

NATIONAL EMPTY HOMES WEEK 2019 SEPTEMBER 23RD – 29TH

Monday 23rd September marks the start of National Empty Homes Week. The Empty Homes Week was founded by Action on Empty Homes to highlight Britain’s underused or completely unused housing stock and to encourage action on how it can serve those with housing needs.

September 20, 2019

FORGING A PAPERLESS FUTURE FOR REAL ESTATE LAWYERS

Data insight providers and real estate lawyers alike are poised to embrace digital change. Caroline Robinson, Search Acumen and Victoria Duxbury, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) explore what this means in practice.

September 13, 2019

SUPERSTITION STALLS THE PROPERTY MARKET AS COMPLETIONS DROP NEARLY 40% ON FRIDAY 13TH

This coming Friday 13th could put the housing and commercial property markets on pause according to analysis by Search Acumen, the property data and technology provider, which shows a double-digit drop in both residential and commercial sales on Friday 13th.

August 23, 2019

CONVEYANCING HITS THE BREXIT BUFFERS AS 10% DROP IN ACTIVITY MEANS SLOWEST QUARTER FOR TWO YEARS

Quarterly conveyancing volumes have dropped below 230,000 cases for the first time in two years (228,994), a decrease of over 10% compared with Q1, according to the Q2 2019 Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

August 21, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR JULY

Much like this rainy August, there wasn’t much sunshine to be found in the property market this past month, as a muted July tells us that most potential home buyers are still concerned about the looming Brexit deadline.

August 12, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION FIGURES

UK construction continues to run, but nobody seems to know what on, or indeed, for how long. Elsewhere this week, experts have been discussing a potential crisis hitting the property market in twelve weeks’ time as UK markets continue to bristle with anxiety ahead of the Brexit deadline.

August 05, 2019

FUTURE GAZING – INDUSTRY EXPERTS DEBATE WHAT’S NEXT IN PROPTECH

We invited representatives from HM Land Registry (HMLR), Leverton, an Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning technology company, International Property Network (IPN), a blockchain property technology firm, research-led Artificial Intelligence company, Eigen Technologies, and also representatives from some of the country’s leading law firms to discuss hot-button issues in the digitisation of the property sector.

July 29, 2019

HOW DIGITAL DATA IS REDEFINING THE REAL ESTATE BUSINESS FOR LAWYERS

Much of the due diligence performed by commercial real estate legal teams today doesn’t look very different to the work done by lawyers at the turn of the last century. Much of it is still administrative, paper-based and slow.

July 24, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR JUNE

We regularly measure the rate of property transactions and our findings are mirroring those of HM Revenue & Customs – the Brexit effect has finally taken hold of the housing sector with transaction levels falling in June.

July 17, 2019

DATA-LED INNOVATION MUST DRIVE THE PROPERTY INDUSTRY FORWARD AS BUYERS INCREASINGLY WANT MORE INFORMATION UPFRONT. ANDREW LLOYD, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF SEARCH ACUMEN, EXPLAINS

Innovation drives our industries and the mortgage market is certainly no exception. This spring, the Financial Conduct Authority published its Mortgage Market Study, which found that while the market was working well for many people, innovation was sorely needed for consumers to be able to find the best deal.

July 15, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN REPORT: COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE VOLUMES GREW BY 20% SINCE 2016

Contrary to some doom-laden headlines we’ve been seeing in the last year, our new data-driven study found that the commercial real estate sector is healthy across England and Wales.

July 12, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE DIGITISATION OF THE LOCAL LAND CHARGES REGISTER FOR NORWICH CITY COUNCIL

One year on from the launch, we’re pleased to see the continued digitalisation of the Local Land Charges (LLC) register. This time it is by Norwich City Council, where professionals involved in buying and selling property can anticipate how the increased ease and speed of accessing data will improve the transaction process in the city.

July 10, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION FIGURES

We recently heard that housebuilding has hit a ten-year low in London, but anxiety has spread beyond the capital as investors and developers are being forced to wait out the Brexit-fuelled uncertainty that’s swept the property development market.

July 02, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG PLANNING APPLICATIONS IN ENGLAND

It’s been a strong year for housebuilding, but planning applications and grants have continued to fall – 2018/2019 has seen the biggest dip in applications for a decade. At this rate, a slowdown in housebuilding is inevitable.

June 21, 2019

BILLION-POUND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LEAGUE REVEALED

Commercial sales of real estate exceeded £1bn in 2018 across thirteen local authority districts of England and Wales, as many areas have witnessed rapid growth over the last two years, according to insight analysis from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

June 19, 2019

PLACETECH INTERVIEW WITH ANDY SOMMERVILLE

What are the new skills that lawyers are having to learn? Today, digital savviness is the key to unlocking the opportunities that digitalisation is bringing to the property sector. Getting up to speed with the latest tools available will enable lawyers to be more efficient, put time intensive administration aside and spend time advising, not trench digging.

June 18, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HOMES ENGLAND ANNUAL HOUSING STATISTICS

A buoyant market, a prosperous future – those are the phrases that spring to mind looking at today’s statistics. As Help to Buy continues to fuel new builds across the country, we’re expecting to see the numbers for new developments and completions to remain resilient this year and into next, especially if the uncertainty surrounding the Brexit negotiations comes to a conclusion.

June 13, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY

The latest RICS UK Residential Survey results point to overall market trends remaining stagnant, with indicators on demand, supply and prices all falling within negative territory, albeit less so than previously.

May 31, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON LAND USE CHANGE STATISTICS FOR 2017 - 2018

Not only was it a strong year of house building in 2017/18 with more than 160,000 homes completed in England, but as today’s Land Use Change Statistics reveal, it was a smarter year as developers built 3,300 more homes on previously undeveloped land compared to 2016/17.

May 30, 2019

TOP 200 CONVEYANCERS SEIZE RECORD MARKET SHARE AS ACTIVE FIRMS DROP BELOW 4,000

The consolidation of the conveyancing market continues as the top 200 conveyancing firms now control more of the market (39%) than ever before, according to the Q1 2019 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

May 17, 2019

SNaPS – A NEW ERA FOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DUE DILIGENCE

PropTech is most effective when it is solving pain points in the property sector. So it was a natural step for us to address a well-known issue that all property lawyers are well aware of - the Search of the index Map, or, SIM process.

May 02, 2019

BEYOND BLOCKCHAIN – DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IS HERE

The current property transaction process is riddled with frustration and pain points for everyone. In some regions of the UK, estimates found that buying and selling a house can take nearly eight months. It is a complex and outdated process in need of innovation.

April 25, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON RICS COMMERCIAL MARKET SURVEY Q1 2019

Caroline Robinson, Commercial Real Estate Business Development Manager of Search Acumen, comments: “The demand for retail spaces is shrinking as customers move online and big name high street brands fall victim to online shopping. Demand for office space is equally on the decline as companies embrace remote working in an effort to reduce overhead costs."

April 24, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR MARCH

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “March traditionally sees a slight increase in property transactions, however, the constantly shifting Brexit deadline and the resulting ripple effect of uncertainty through UK markets has contributed to growth remaining flat last month."

April 10, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE VISUALISATION SOLUTION TO FAST-TRACK COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DUE DILIGENCE

SNaPS is a new service to help property lawyers make faster decisions on behalf of their clients – providing unprecedented access to property information while reducing transaction costs.

April 04, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN PARTICIPATES IN FIRST PROPERTY DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY TRIAL

London, UK; 4th April 2019: Instant Property Network (IPN), a property transaction network, has successfully completed a global trial of a new distributed ledger-based system, demonstrating the potential to speed up property transactions by months.

April 03, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN APPOINTS CLIENT MANAGER AS IT EXPANDS COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BUSINESS

Search Acumen, property data insight and technology provider, has appointed Charlotte Cripps to the role of Commercial Real Estate Client Relationship Manager as the business continues to enhance its work with legal firms in the commercial real estate market.

April 02, 2019

PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY – GOING THE EXTRA 133,000 MILES

Public Rights of Way (PRoW) are a national institution enjoyed by millions of people. Many of them are hundreds, in some cases, thousands of years old, often created by people walking across the land to work, hunt, market, or to visit the next village, church, or school and are since being safeguarded by protective laws.

March 28, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSEBUILDING STATISTICS DECEMBER QUARTER 2018

Housebuilding continued steadily as we ended 2018, with no change in new build dwelling and a 1% increase in completions year on year. We’ve made considerable progress compared to five years ago, however there is still progress to be made towards reaching the house-building highs we experienced before the financial crisis.

March 21, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR FEBRUARY

While residential property transactions remained relatively flat in February 2019, the number of monthly seasonally adjusted transactions has only been bettered once since the EU Referendum in 2016.

March 11, 2019

DATA UNBOUND – HOW THE RISE OF PUBLIC DATA WILL REDEFINE THE PROPERTY INDUSTRY

The proliferation of big data is paving the way to improving our economy on almost every front as entrepreneurial digital companies reimagine just about every service and transaction we do.

March 05, 2019

CONVEYANCING DEFIES BREXIT UNCERTAINTY TO HIT POST-EU REFERENDUM HIGH IN Q4 2018

Conveyancers in England and Wales dealt with more cases on average in the last three months of 2018 than in any other quarter since before the EU referendum of June 2016, according to the Q4 2018 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

February 25, 2019

FUELLING THE FUTURE – RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF OPEN DATA IN THE MODERN PROPERTY SECTOR

Data is the modern oil – bytes of data streaming in worldwide from every direction to power our economy’s technological revolution. Unlike natural resources, however, we’re at no risk of running out of data.

February 19, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN ARE FIRST TO INTRODUCE PUBLIC RIGHTS OF WAY DATA WITHIN PROPERTY INSIGHT PLATFORM

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has upgraded its Commercial Real Estate platform ForeSite to give lawyers and property professionals instant access to Public Rights of Way (PRoW) data held by all 326 Local Authorities in England and Wales.

February 12, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT IN GREAT BRITAIN FEBRUARY 2019

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen comments: "The UK commercial real estate sector was a rare bright spot in the last quarter of 2018, with new commercial work helping bring up otherwise poor construction figures. Property developers have spent the year worrying about just how bad the fallout from Brexit could be for the sector, which has meant the default ‘wait and see’ approach has stalled projects"

January 22, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S MONTHLY PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS FOR DECEMBER

Brexit clearly cast a shadow over the UK property market in the run-up to Christmas, leaving the market flattened as a result. It’s likely the same shadow will extend into January once the first 2019 indicators emerge.

January 21, 2019

CHALLENGES FACING THE MODULAR/OFFSITE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Remaining competitive in the current market is a challenge for most developers. Those looking to stay ahead will benefit from the advances in big data in the land transaction, property planning and financing process.

January 15, 2019

CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER - Q3 2018

The number of active conveyancing firms handling property transactions in England and Wales has fallen to the lowest figure since HM Land Registry began publishing its data, according to the Q3 2018 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider.

January 15, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSEBUILDING STATISTICS SEPTEMBER QUARTER 2018

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “We’ve found ourselves in a situation where we’re on track to have built nearly 160,000 new homes in England in 2018, but supply and demand constraints mean we’re in the midst of a housing crisis. The price for an average property is now nearly eight times the value of an average salary – simply, we need to be building smarter."

January 14, 2019

PROPTECH TO GEAR UP TOWARDS LIGHT SPEED IN 2019

2018 saw many exciting new proptech initiatives come to the fore. But we think this year is going to be the industry’s watershed moment, when many of the ideas we’ve been discussing will begin to come to fruition and make a marked difference to the UK housing market.

January 11, 2019

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT IN GREAT BRITAIN

Andy Sommervilee comments, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The UK’s construction output continued to rise at a pace at the back end of 2018, no doubt fuelled by the impact that a strong Help to Buy scheme has had on the residential sector, particularly over the last year. Building is booming.

December 20, 2018

MEMBER’S SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEW: SEARCH ACUMEN

As someone who has over 18 years of experience working in the online property information/data sector, can you tell us how has the industry changed in that time?

December 06, 2018

PRICING TRANSPARENCY TO OFFER CONVEYANCING SECTOR OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE ITS WORTH

Forget about a potential Brexit showdown in Westminster in mid-December; D-Day for Conveyancers is 6 December 2018, when firms will have to provide clear up front fees as part of new Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Council of Licenced Conveyancers (CLC) transparency rules.

December 06, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON NEW SRA/CLC PRICE TRANSPARENCY RULES HEAD OF THURSDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2018 DEADLINE

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Search Acumen welcomes the decision to introduce price transparency for conveyancers. This is a big step in making the industry more competitive and ultimately serves as a fantastic opportunity to allow practitioners to prove their worth in the marketplace.

December 06, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN'S CONVEYANCING FEE CALCULATOR

Conveyancing Fee Calculator

November 30, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN JOINS GLOBAL LEGAL BLOCKCHAIN CONSORTIUM

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, is delighted to join the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium (GLBC), a body formed of 125 large companies, law firms, software companies, and universities from around the world that have joined together to develop standards to govern the use of Blockchain technology in the business of law.

November 29, 2018

CONVEYANCING: NOW MOVERS CAN COMPARE PRICES AND CUT COSTS

Solicitors in England and Wales will be forced to publish their fees for conveyancing on their websites from next month, in a move to help home movers shop around and cut costs.

November 28, 2018

UK GOVERNMENT SIGNPOSTS A PROPDATA REVOLUTION TO FUEL HOUSING REFORMS

In recent months, the UK Government’s commitment to housing reform has become increasingly certain - and one of the ways it is trying to underpin that is by making more property data available.

November 22, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG AFFORDABLE HOUSING SUPPLY 2017-2018

The UK government and industry has finally woken up to the scale of our nation’s housing crisis. It’s encouraging to see recent drives to increase the supply of affordable housing start to reach fruition, with over 47,000 affordable homes delivered in 2017-18.

November 19, 2018

BLACKPOOL’S £250 MILLION PROPERTY MARKET UP BY 19% IN THREE YEARS, AS TOWN PREPARES FOR DIGITAL DATA SWITCH-OVER

Blackpool’s property market is on track to surpass a valuation of £250m this year as the total spent on sales has grown by 19% since 2014, according to new analysis by Search Acumen, the property data and technology provider.

November 14, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX SEPTEMBER 2018

While reports of a Brexit agreement have resulted in a short-term rally for sterling, a similar boost to the UK property market is unlikely to materialise until well after March 2019. Uncertainty and lack of confidence has plagued the UK property market since June 2016, deflating both buyers’ ambitions and house prices in the process.

November 05, 2018

IMPENDING TRANSPARENCY REFORMS WILL CREATE A BETTER CONVEYANCING SECTOR

In just a few weeks, conveyancers in England and Wales will be compelled to publish their fees as part of new Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) transparency rules[1], in an effort to give customers more clarity. We have no doubt whatsoever that this a good thing.

November 01, 2018

UK PROPTECH ASSOCIATION APPOINTS INDUSTRY AND TECH LEADERS TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

A selection of industry leaders across the technology and real estate industries have been appointed to the board of the UK PropTech Association (UKPA) – the industry’s main voice and representative body.

October 31, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN: LEGAL PROPTECH WILL “HIT WARP SPEED” WITHIN FIVE YEARS

Law firms’ use of data and technology to manage property transactions is on the cusp of a “big bang” moment as the legal proptech industry gears up to “hit warp speed” within five years, Search Acumen has predicted. Advances such as blockchain, tokenised property, property logbooks and the government-backed digitisation of the sector – embodied by HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) Digital Street project – are set to transform the legal due diligence process for property transactions.

October 19, 2018

CHALLENGING MARKET LEADS TO FIRST CONVEYANCING PRODUCTIVITY DIP IN FIVE YEARS

Productivity levels in the conveyancing market took a hit for the first time in five years, as the average conveyancer completed 115 cases, down 4% from 120 in 2016. This drop mirrors the dampening of the property market as the overall number of transactions handled by conveyancers across England and Wales also fell for the first time in five years. The latest Conveyancing Productivity Index by Search Acumen – the property data insight and technology provider to conveyancers, solicitors and commercial property lawyers – found that the total number of transactions processed by the sector dropped by 12% during 2017.

October 17, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX AUGUST 2018

“As another month passes, house price growth continues to lose steam across the country. The end to the seller’s market appears to be looming and property investors will be taking stock of their portfolios and assessing where might be most impacted by a lull in valuations. “So far, the London market appears to be taking the main brunt of this sea change. Having experienced exponential growth over the last 10 years, we have likely reached an affordability breaking point as fewer prospective homeowners search the capital for their home and prices are suffering as a result."

October 16, 2018

ARE YOU USING DATA TO FUEL AUTOMATION AND PERFORMANCE?

Professional services often rely on a lot of data and information, and a relatively small amount of judgement. Law firms in particular are now deluged with data that has to be sifted and sorted and are cautiously reassessing their data handling strategy to stay ahead and drive change. They now know that the solution to the problem is not hiring rooms full of junior staff to toil through millions of documents, but introduce an automation engine to work with their data ‘fuel’ - currently, too many firms are ‘all fuel and no engine’.

October 11, 2018

CORPORATE BODIES OWN MORE THAN 3,000 SQUARE METRES OF LAND FOR EVERY HOUSEHOLD IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Land ownership by domestic corporate and commercial entities amounts to 3,106 square metres (m²) – equivalent to three five-a-side football pitches or 12 tennis courts[1] – for every household in England and Wales, according to new analysis by Search Acumen, the property data and technology provider. Findings from HM Land Registry data covering nearly 500,000 registrations and over 11.5 million acres of land, combined with population data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show nearly a third (31%) of England and Wales is held by domestic corporate and commercial owners.

September 27, 2018

LONDON'S COMMERCIAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS MORE THAN DOUBLE IN THREE YEARS

The annual value of London’s commercial sales of property has soared by 166% since 2014, soaring from £11.3 billion in 2014 to £30.1 billion in 2017, according to our analysis of HM Land Registry data for Greater London’s 28 boroughs. With £12.7bn worth of commercial sales already achieved in 2018[1], this year is set to be another year of strong performance in the commercial market.

September 24, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX FOR SMALL AREAS

“The market has seemingly hit its peak. The significant drop-off in house price growth between 2017 and 2018 truly marks the end to a decade of high growth. While prospective homeowners in London boroughs and the South East may be encouraged by cooling valuations as prices fall closer in line with wage growth, economists are unlikely to be so upbeat."

September 13, 2018

THE RACE FOR INVESTMENT HAS IGNITED A PROPTECH IDENTITY CRISIS

"Historically, real estate has been viewed as one of slowest sectors to embrace new ways of doing business – much of the admin associated with property purchasing hasn’t changed for 100 years or more. As such, proptech has not developed as quickly compared with the likes of fintech and healthtech. But as attitudes change, the pile of fresh capital ready to invest in tech-led solutions in the property market is growing year-on-year – which means everyone is now claiming ‘proptech’ status."

September 03, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LAUNCH OF THE CENTRAL, LOCAL LAND CHARGES REGISTER IN LIVERPOOL

"With the launch of the Local Land Charges (LLC) digital register, Liverpool’s property market is set to enter a new age of efficiency. The newly digitised data will provide solicitors with instant access to data needed to carry out due diligence for homebuyers and sellers, which they could have previously waited weeks to receive."

August 31, 2018

LIVERPOOL PROPERTY MARKET NEARS £1BN MILESTONE AS CITY PREPARES FOR DIGITAL SWITCHOVER

Liverpool’s property market is set to reach a £1bn valuation this year as the total spent on house sales has more than doubled since 2012, according to new analysis by Search Acumen, the property data and technology provider. With local conveyancing firms preparing for the rollout of a new digital portal registry from HM Land Registry to help speed up the homebuying process, Search Acumen’s findings show the value of housing transactions in Liverpool reached £996m in 2017, up by 124% from £552m just five years ago.

August 23, 2018

CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER - Q2 2018

Our Conveyancing Market Tracker reveals that firms ranked between 51st and 100th experienced largest yearly transaction growth (23%) as the challenger firms set the pace within the top 100, building on momentum from 2017.

August 21, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC NUMBER OF PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS, JULY 2018

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: "This month’s data adds to the growing pile of indicators which show that contrary to the weather, the UK housing market is experiencing a clear cooling process this summer. Growth in the number of transactions hasn’t just hit a wall; it has started to move backwards, with July’s seasonally adjusted total for July transactions sitting 3.2% lower than the same month last year."

August 21, 2018

THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF PROPERTY DATA

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen "We spend a lot of time espousing the benefits of open property data in terms of how it can help conveyancers and their clients in the property transaction chain. But the opening up of the government’s big land and property data sets, we will be able to do much more. We foresee a digitised property industry being able to boost the wider economy significantly in the 21st century."

August 15, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX, JUNE 2018

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The UK property market takes its lead from London and the South East. While parts of the UK continue to enjoy healthy levels of house price growth, the dips being witnessed in London will no doubt be casting a sense of unease among investors in the market."

July 24, 2018

THE VERY FIRST (OF MANY) LLC DIGITAL SEARCHES

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen: "The beautiful town of Warwick was the centre of the conveyancing universe on Wednesday, 10th July as efforts by HM Land Registry (HMLR) to centralise and digitise the Local Land Charges (LLC) register finally came to fruition. Warwick District Council became the first local authority to make all its LLC information available digitally – and we were delighted to process the first ever search of its kind at 6.30am on Wednesday, 11th July."

July 18, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX, MAY 2018

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: "Today’s figures show that the slowing UK housing market has now effectively hit a brick wall. For some, this is welcome relief. Particularly in the capital, stalled house prices mean first-time buyers finally have a better chance of catching up."

July 11, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LAUNCH OF THE CENTRAL, DIGITAL LOCAL LAND CHARGES REGISTER

“Search Acumen is excited to get down to work and begin to utilise HM Land Registry’s (HMLR) newly opened, central digital Local Land Charges (LLC) register. It is early days, but we think the ability to immediately execute LLC searches will completely transform UK property transactions. “According to HMLR, decentralised LLC searches ranged from a few pounds to nearly £100, depending on the local authority. And, because the process is often manual, turnaround time can fluctuate from one business day to more than 40 days."

June 25, 2018

CONVEYANCERS BOUNCE BACK – BUT HOW CAN THEY STAY ON TOP?

The conveyancing market suffered some ups and downs in 2017, but the industry did pick up in early 2018. Even so, with clouds on the horizon, how can firms capitalise now and take advantage while the sun still shines?

June 20, 2018

INDUSTRY FIRST AS SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES REAL-TIME PLANNING DATA FOR PROPERTY LAWYERS AND THEIR CLIENTS

Search Acumen, the property data insight and technology provider, has upgraded its Commercial Real Estate platform – ForeSite, to provide the legal sector with real-time access to planning applications data for the first time.

June 13, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: "While house price growth has cooled considerably, in real terms we are still experiencing quarter on quarter and indeed annual growth. For those struggling to make it onto the housing ladder, UK house price growth means the goal posts are moving considerably from month to month"

May 30, 2018

CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER - Q1 2018

Search Acumen’s Q1 2018 Conveyancing Market Tracker reveals that quarterly activity levels rebounded during the beginning of 2018 for conveyancers, as transaction volumes rose to 271,576 up from 241,666 in Q4 2017. Year-on-year (YoY) comparisons reveal a considerable 11% increase in activity.

May 14, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN ANNOUNCES UK PROPTECH ASSOCIATION DIRECTORSHIP

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen comments: “As a founding member of the UK Proptech Association, I am excited to be taking a seat on the organisation’s Board of Directors alongside other digital pioneers in the sector and getting down to work to support our burgeoning sector.

May 01, 2018

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN BLOG - RIDING THE PROPTECH WAVE TO INDUSTRY REVOLUTION

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen "Earlier this month, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) outlined a set of bold new measures to professionalise the sector, drive up standards and bring an end to rogue actors in the property industry. This, alongside a number of recent initiatives including Land Registry’s Digital Street programme, all adds up to far more than just a spring clean-up of the homebuying experience."

May 01, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN UPGRADES REAL ESTATE PLATFORM TO FAST TRACK LEGAL PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

Search Acumen, the property data and technology provider, has upgraded its Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Platform to accelerate the due diligence process for commercial property lawyers by providing instant access to new data sets, which have until now only been obtainable through lengthy and expensive local authority searches.

April 26, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSING AND AFFORDABILITY IN ENGLAND AND WALES 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Today’s statistics on housing affordability show us that the UK housing crisis is truly a generational crisis." People in their twenties and thirties now have to earn twice as a much as their parents did to be able to afford to buy any property type in England.

April 09, 2018

GOVERNMENT HOME-BUYING OVERHAUL CAN RIDE A GROWING TIDE OF PROPTECH AMBITION, ACTION AND INNOVATION

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen, comments: “Sajid Javid’s proposals are very welcome and add up to far more than just a spring clean-up of the homebuying experience. The case for change is driven by familiar frustrations, but importantly, there is new and exciting potential emerging from proptech initiatives to help move a new-look customer experience from theory into reality.''

April 05, 2018

CELEBRATION OF LIFE - INDUSTRY VETERAN PETER SOWERBY

It is with great difficulty that we announce the very sad news of our colleague and friend Peter Sowerby passing away yesterday. As many of you will know, Peter had been courageously battling a terminal diagnosis of Prostate Cancer for some time. When Peter received the news back in December 2015, he decided to grab life with both hands and embarked on a series of challenges to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer.

April 04, 2018

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #19: LAND REGISTRY LEADS WITH LLC – AND WE MUST NOW FOLLOW

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen ''Over the years, Search Acumen has been a vocal advocate of digitalisation in the property industry. Efforts to improve data access, rethink processes and achieve faster turnaround times should all be embraced because both industry and consumers stand to benefit.''

March 29, 2018

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #18: BUCKING THE TREND OF OVERSELLING WITH BASKET OPTIMISATION

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen ''In recent years, we’ve seen an abundance of property reports enter the market. The proliferation of choice has taken hold of the conveyancing industry, and lawyers are increasingly at risk of being overwhelmed by the multitude of data on offer. But, more reports doesn’t necessarily mean more information. With significant crossover and duplication between reports, conveyancers are spending valuable time and resources checking this repetitive material to ascertain the appropriate risks associated with their property.''

March 22, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MHCLG HOUSEBUILDING STATISTICS Q4 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments “We’re yet to break ground on the UK’s housing crisis. Britain is building more homes, but when the scale of the UK’s housing crisis is considered, this uplift is just a drop in the ocean. The void between supply and demand is still widening by the day, continuing to push house prices to the ceiling limit of what first-time-buyers can afford.''

February 28, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES BASKET OPTIMISATION TO HARNESS GROWING PROPERTY DATASETS

Search Acumen, the property technology and data provider, has launched Basket Optimisation, a new platform addition designed to help legal professionals identify the most efficient combination of property data and reports to complete due diligence on property transactions.

February 14, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER - Q4 2017

Conveyancing volumes shrunk by 12% last year – from 1,077,959 in 2016 to 952,966 in 2017 – the first annual drop in workloads since 2011, reflecting a subdued property market. The average firm completed 171 transactions in 2017, down 11% on 2016 and down 1% from a decade ago. The number of active firms in the market remained steady in 2017, dropping less than 1% year-on-year but still down 28% since 2007.

February 13, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX, DECEMBER 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “With real wage growth falling, inflation biting and savings stagnating, many prospective home buyers are likely to be feeling the pinch. Altough house price growth may not be rocketing, having wavered slightly around the 5% mark for the past six months, wider economic factors such as inflation and wage stagnation are likely to be taking their toll on hopeful homeowners, nudging property prices out of the parameters of affordability for many.''

January 31, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC’S STAMP DUTY STATISTICS, Q4

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Despite the flurry of excitement surrounding the government’s cut to stamp duty for millions of first-time-buyers, today’s figures show the impact of the tax cut will take a while to bed in and materialise, as the housing market slowed to a sluggish pace in the closing months of 2017.

January 11, 2018

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST HELP-TO-BUY EQUITY LOAN SCHEME STATISTICS, SEPTEMBER 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: ''The Help-to-Buy has tapered somewhat from the highs we witnessed in the middle of 2017, but underlying figures paint a more worrying picture. The average purchase price for a first-time buyer property is up to record levels – up 12% annually, and almost 50% more since Q3 2013. In that same period, the average household wage of a first-time buyer taking part in the government scheme has only increased by 7% annually, and a third since Q3 2013.''

January 08, 2018

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #17: TECH AT THE TIPPING POINT IN 2018

Andrew Lloyd - ''As we look ahead to another year in the conveyancing sector, it’s safe to assume that tech innovation will continue to mould and push the industry. You will likely be thinking that this is not a bold prediction, but in many ways 2018 could in fact be the tipping point for tech as we experience a watershed moment for open property data.''

December 11, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS UK HOUSE PRICE INDEX, OCTOBER 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments “Today’s house price statistics will bring little festive cheer to the UK’s first-time buyers. While growth in prices has slightly dampened during 2017, the market continues to push itself further out of reach for young market hopefuls who were wishing to put up a Christmas tree in their new home this year.''

November 30, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #16: NEW TECH ON THE BLOCK: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW NOW ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen Blockchain. It’s been branded as the future of just about everything, and is soon expected to infiltrate all aspects of how we live our lives from banking, to tax returns to voting. But what is it, and how can it be used in property transactions?

November 23, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE 2017 AUTUMN BUDGET

As featured in Inside Conveyancing: By Andy Sommerville, “We have been calling on the government to consider all factors prohibiting homeownership in the UK, so the chancellor’s wide-ranging pledges are welcomed. The chancellor is correct in that there is no single magic bullet to solve our housing crisis. Our recent studies found that building 300,000 homes a year will go a long way to reducing the housing supply gap we are currently suffering. We only hope pledges turn into bricks and mortar without delay.”

November 21, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON OCTOBER’S HMRC PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS

As featured in the Property Reporter: Andy Sommerville comments, “Sluggish and slow have been the recent words of choice to describe the UK’s housing market, yet October’s figures depict the contrary. Last month witnessed 2017’s busiest month in terms of residential transactions, and a rise of almost 10% since the same point last year."

November 20, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER – Q3 2017 EDITION

The UK conveyancing market bounced back in the mid-summer following a significant drop in activity in Q2 2017, with challenger firms taking full advantage of a revival in transaction numbers across the property market. The Q3 2017 edition of Search Acumen’s Conveyancing Market Tracker reveals that total transaction volumes over the three-month period reached 254,606. This was 21% higher than the four-year low recorded during Q2 2017 (210,964), although it remained down 6% year-on-year from 271,197 in Q3 2016.

November 20, 2017

COMMERCIAL & RESIDENTIAL PRE-TRANSACTION SCREENING

Search Acumen, the property search provider, has launched an online platform specifically dedicated to commercial property transactions, designed to transform the due diligence process by providing real estate lawyers with instant access to commercial property data sets and the ability to conduct and manage a portfolio of property searches in one place.

November 10, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST ONS CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: ''For decades, the UK has been plagued by sluggish output in the home construction sector – so much that we predict a shortfall of over a million new homes by 2022. But, today’s figures show the foundations are being laid to stop the gap widening further between UK housing supply and demand.''

October 31, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST HMRC QUARTERLY STAMP DUTY STATISTICS, Q3

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: ''The cost of homeownership has departed the realm of reality for millions with the number of transactions in the £500,000 to £2million price bands doubling over the past ten years. Today’s figures highlight the double edged sword of the UK property sector. Market conditions are pushing up house prices further and further, which in turn means buyers are facing higher stamp duty bills.''

October 24, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #15: PROPTECH: EVOLUTION MUST NOW FOLLOW THE REVOLUTION

Andrew Lloyd - Whether you’re a tech pessimist or junkie it is very difficult to build a case to deny the fintech revolution the world has witnessed in the 21st Century. Fintech is such a powerful change because it solves problems with legacy systems and ways of working. Paypal made it easier for people to make payments electronically. Kickstarter allowed tiny, niche start-up businesses to get access to funding. I think we’re approaching the same moment in proptech.

October 16, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S RIGHTMOVE HOUSE PRICE INDEX

Featured in Today's Conveyancer: By Andy Sommerville “Without urgent action home ownership will remain nothing more than a Christmas wish for many aspiring homeowners. “There is clearly still plenty of confidence in the housing market as sellers’ price expectations for newly listed homes increase. Some will see the rising national average asking price as a sign of health, but in a market suffering from chronic unaffordability this is yet another indicator that reform is required to prevent inflated pricing. This is especially true in a climate where we expect a cumulative shortfall of one million new homes by 2022 compared to what we need to be building to satisfy demand"

October 10, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #14: THE BEGINNING OF THE END – COMMERCIAL PROPERTY SEARCHES ARE CHANGING FOREVER

Andrew Lloyd - It’s the beginning of the end for searches as we know them in the commercial property market. And that’s a very good thing.   A bold statement from someone in our line of work, we know. But we’ve never been content with the status quo. Today’s commercial property market already wants – and needs – better due diligence processes than when the Search Acumen team, in our previous working lives, longer ago than we sometimes care to remember, pioneered the approach that many law firms still use.

October 04, 2017

THERESA MAY ANNOUNCES FURTHER £2BN FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Featured in the Financial Reporter: “Theresa May’s pledge to invest an extra £2bn in affordable housing is the first building block to making up for years of under supply and we can only hope that this is not simply another empty promise to fix our broken housing market. Now that our leaders share the industry’s sense of urgency, we must act to build more homes and we must act quickly. The gulf between supply and demand is widening each day. For the property and construction industry, this is the cue for Britain to start building.”

October 02, 2017

A SEARCH ACUMEN STUDY HAS FOUND ENGLAND COULD BE SHORT 1 MILLION HOMES BY 2020

Featured in the Telegraph: "New research by conveyancing services provider Search Acumen found that a deficit of more than 500,000 homes has formed in England, compared to the number of new households created. It also warned that if current housebuilding and population growth trends continue, England could lack one million new homes by 2022".

September 29, 2017

ENGLAND’S NEW HOMES SHORTFALL WILL REACH MORE THAN ONE MILLION BY 2022

England is on course to be lacking more than one million new homes to meet the demands of a growing population after years of reducing new home build development. According to research by conveyancing search provider Search Acumen, using official figures from the UK government and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), England has been experiencing a shortfall in the number of new houses being built compared with the number of new households being added to the population for more than a decade.

September 06, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER – Q2 2017 EDITION

Activity in the UK conveyancing market dipped significantly over Q2 2017, as stagnant housing supply and restricted home moving activity pushed total conveyancing volumes down 14% to 210,964 from 245,738 in Q1 2017: the fewest cases in a single quarter since mid-2013.

August 15, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “A slowdown in house price growth is good news for first-time buyers and those looking to move up or down the housing ladder. At the same time, lethargic price growth will undoubtedly worry those who have a large amount of equity tied up in property."

August 10, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The shadow over the housing market is leaving no corner untouched as the stagnation that has been affecting London and the South East markets begins to spread and bring the UK housing market even closer to a standstill.

August 03, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #13: REAL TRANSPARENCY BOOSTS PRODUCTIVITY

Andrew Lloyd - Many people in the business world will tell you that transparency is optional - especially for small businesses. They’ll tell you that so long as nobody is demanding information from your company you don’t necessarily have to be forthcoming. In this digital age, this attitude is having to change.

July 26, 2017

WHAT PRODUCTIVITY PUZZLE? CONVEYANCERS’ OUTPUT SOARS 69% SINCE 2012

Productivity levels in the conveyancing market have soared, rising by 69% in just four years from 71 cases per year in 2012 to 120 cases per year in 2016. With cases continuing to rise but the number of conveyancers falling, those who remain are faced with an ever-increasing workload and are being forced to find more ways to work smarter.

July 21, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON HMRC PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS, JUNE 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments on HMRC Property Transactions June 2017: “While temperatures have soared this summer, the property market has seen only a gradual uptick in transactions during recent months. Factoring in seasonal adjustments leaves activity looking fairly flat, and it’s no coincidence that an unexpected election result has coincided with the first drop in monthly residential and non-residential transactions to below 100,000 and 10,000 respectively this year.

July 13, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY, JUNE 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments on the latest RICS Residential Market Survey for June 2017: “Prospective buyers are treading on eggshells, but four straight months of decline in newly agreed sales doesn’t reflect a negative sentiment in the market. People want to buy. We just have a chronic shortage of housing and the government is failing to provide the antidote.

July 05, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #12: DON’T JUST MANAGE DATA, EXPLOIT IT

Andrew Lloyd - In recent years, developments in big data and technology have received mixed messages from within the legal profession. Many lawyers are terrified to see their expertise - which they have worked so hard to accrue - being devalued and replaced by technology. To accept this change means understanding how technology, when correctly managed, is transforming the legal business in a positive way.

June 29, 2017

HOUSING COMPLETIONS TAKE 'SHARP TURN IN THE WRONG DIRECTION'

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “After an encouraging period of increased output in the housebuilding sector, we have suffered the UK’s lowest quarterly housing output for two years. A nose-dive in completed dwellings at the start of 2018 – down from nearly 46,000 a year ago and 55,000 at the end of 2017 to below 39,000 – amounts to a sharp turn in the wrong direction."

June 13, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS UK HOUSE PRICE INDEX, APRIL 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “In the wake of a general election that saw housing affordability issues come to the fore, an uplift in house price growth from March and April will be met with mixed reactions during an already turbulent time. With many looking to the property market as a barometer of the wider economy, comfort will be taken in today’s figures, calming anxieties of a possible downturn as we go into Brexit negotiations. It does however remain to be seen whether this growth is simply a false economy, being propped up by a critical lack of housing supply."

June 08, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY MAY 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The property market has flatlined as buyers and sellers alike have remained hesitant and cautious in the run-up to the general election. “With the result of the election just around the corner, it will hopefully encourage buyers and sellers to abandon their ‘wait and see approach’ and give them greater certainty and clarity to pursue their property-buying ambitions with confidence.

June 05, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #11: STAGNANT AND STABLE? 2017’S SNAP ELECTION AND THE PROPERTY MARKET

Andrew Lloyd - The Prime Minister’s pitch to the electorate is strong and stable leadership during a period of Brexit negotiations. But the present reality is a stagnant but stable market. And the election, at least in the short term, is adding to the uncertainty. Could the result mean a time of opportunity and growth is just around the corner? Or just another bump in the long term trend? What could the election mean for the property market?

May 24, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN BLOG - THE DIGITAL DEED: WHAT WILL THE DIGITAL MORTGAGE MEAN FOR PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS?

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director, Search Acumen Over the past 20 years, nearly all aspects of our financial lives have migrated online, from tax returns to banking. Yet arguably the most important and protracted financial process in our lives has remained doggedly devoted to the paper based world.

May 22, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER – Q1 2017 EDITION

Quarterly activity levels have shown little sign of movement in the year so far, with conveyancing volumes up from 245,275 in Q4 2016 to 245,738 in Q1 2017, according to the Q1 2017 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from conveyancing search provider Search Acumen.  Meanwhile, unprecedented levels of activity in early 2016 caused an 11% year-on-year decline in activity, worsened by February 2017 witnessing the lowest level of monthly activity since April 2014.

May 16, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON ONS UK HOUSE PRICE INDEX, MARCH 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Today’s figures show that UK house prices are continuing to slow, falling from 5.6% growth in February to 4.1% in March. This trajectory is no doubt reflective of the wider sentiment of the UK housing market, with the industry remaining flat and stagnant in the face of ongoing uncertainty.”

May 11, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments on the latest RICS Residential Market Survey for April 2017: “April’s figures demonstrate that the political and economic uncertainty is continuing to take its toll on the UK property market, with buyer interest and number of sales continuing to decline and housing stock close to record lows. The calling of a general election has only served to dampen buyer’s appetite further as many are choosing to exercise caution until greater clarity emerges about the future of the UK economy and their finances."

May 05, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #10: BIG DATA - UNVEILING NEW POSSIBILITIES FOR UK SOCIAL HOUSING

Andrew Lloyd - This blog, will contribute to the 2.5 billion gigabytes of data uploaded to the World Wide Web today. Conversations around big data come thick and fast in our modernising economy. For years now, creative minds have dreamt up ways of harnessing the power of data to analyse patterns and trends relating to human behaviour and interactions.

May 03, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN IMPROVES EFFICIENCY AND TRANSPARENCY IN THE CONVEYANCING MARKET WITH QUOTATION TOOL

The quotation tool is a complimentary service offered to Search Acumen’s clients which enables conveyancing firms to get more business through quick access to quotes when receiving a request by phone or email. Conveyancing firms can additionally embed the tool within their websites and allow direct access by homebuyers looking for an instant online quotation via a ‘get a quote’ button; providing complete transparency to existing and potential customers.

April 28, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S HMRC QUARTERLY STAMP DUTY STATISTICS

“The squeeze on affordability appears to be continuing as today’s statistics from HMRC reveal that Q1 2017 saw a 39% drop in transactions that were not liable for stamp duty land tax. Prospective buyers are being priced out of the market by surging house prices and a decrease in transactions with low tax thresholds is symptomatic of the housing crisis that burns on.

April 21, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY'S HMRC PROPERTY TRANSACTION FIGURES, MARCH 2017

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Housing transactions reached their highest point last month since the headlong rush to beat the introduction of the stamp duty surcharge twelve months earlier in March last year. A modest monthly rise from February 2017 nonetheless shows that a recovery in the residential property market is underway, with seasonally-adjusted transactions topping 100,000 for three successive months.

April 07, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN ARE FIRST TO OFFER COMMERCIAL TITLE OWNERSHIP DATA TO REAL ESTATE LAWYERS

Search Acumen, the property search provider, has announced it is the first in the industry to offer Land Registry’s Commercial Title Ownership data to its customers free of charge as the next step in the evolution of its commercial real estate platform.   As part of Land Registry’s commitment to greater transparency of public information and unlocking its data for commercial use, over 3 million records of Commercial Title Ownership data are available to the public.

March 31, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S DCLG HELP TO BUY (EQUITY LOAN SCHEME) STATISTICS: 1 APRIL 2013 TO 31 DECEMBER 2016

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The latest data on the Help to Buy equity loan scheme shows that on the surface the Government have made a successful first step in easing up the housing market for first time buyers. Four in five purchasers under the scheme fall into this category and the clear majority of first time buyers are taking advantage of the deposit required of up to 5%.

March 29, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #9: BYOD: HOW TO STAY CYBER SAVVY ON YOUR OWN DEVICE

Andrew Lloyd - Last week, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) was added to the long list of organisations victimised by the modern day threat of cyber-crime, placing 42,000 individual's personal information into the world of the unknown. Shocking news? Absolutely not. It feels as though there are few weeks that go by where a different online security breach isn't uncovered in the press, and it is about time corporations sought to seize back control of their information networks for good.

March 21, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX (JANUARY 2017) AND HMRC PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS (FEBRUARY 2017)

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Last week’s statistics on housing affordability proved just how disproportionate the gap between the average salary and house price has been over the past decade. Today’s ONS statistics reveal the first picture of the New Year and show us that the strong growth in UK house prices have little sign of easing. Average house prices in the UK have increased by 6.2 percent in the year to January 2017 – rising above December’s year-on-year growth – and will be leaving current homeowners celebrating whilst prospective buyers will be further deflated from their hopes of embarking on the housing ladder.

March 20, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S ONS HOUSING AFFORDABILITY STATISTICS FOR ENGLAND AND WALES: 1997 TO 2016

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “Today’s statistics reveal that the typical price paid for residential property in England and Wales increased by 259% between 1997 and 2016 – an obviously significant jump over nearly two decades. On average, working people could expect to pay around seven and a half times their annual salary when purchasing a home in England and Wales last year, up from around three and a half times their earnings twenty years ago.

March 02, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #8: THE OPEN DATA REVOLUTION HAS JUST BEGUN

Mark Riddick - The legal and property industries have, arguably, been slower than most to take up technology and embrace big data in the digital age. But the reality is that for many years, they didn’t have to.   Compare the traditional conveyancer or estate agent with some of their high street neighbours, such as retailers, banks or building societies; the internet forced many of them to start shifting their business online over a decade ago, with traditional players thrown into a ‘do or die’ battle for survival. Some well-known names were outmanoeuvred by plucky start-ups and international distribution giants.

February 25, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN TRANSFORMS COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DUE DILIGENCE WITH LAUNCH OF NEW, FULLY INTEGRATED DATA PLATFORM

Search Acumen, the property search provider, has launched an online platform specifically dedicated to commercial property transactions, designed to transform the due diligence process by providing real estate lawyers with instant access to commercial property data sets and the ability to conduct and manage a portfolio of property searches in one place.

February 23, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT HOUSEBUILDING STATISTICS, 2016

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “2016 housebuilding starts soared to their highest level seen in England since the financial crisis in 2008 – reaching over 150,000 across all dwellings. During a year filled with uncertainty, many thought the housebuilding sector would crumble under the pressure of the Brexit vote but the industry has shown admirable robustness through the dark days."

February 21, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER – Q4 2016 EDITION

During a year that shook the property sector with uncertainty, the total number of conveyancing firms operating in the market broke a five year trend of annual decline, according to Search Acumen’s Conveyancing Market Tracker. In 2016, the number of conveyancing firms rose by 4% to reach 5,572, up from 5,357 the year before.

February 14, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE ONS HOUSE PRICE INDEX, DECEMBER 2016

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “2017 will almost certainly be another year of big house price increases. The final month of 2016 saw a 1.4% jump in house prices, setting the tone for the year ahead. A 7.2% annual rise in values in 2016, what could at the very least be considered a tricky year for the economy, is not the sign of a healthy market - it is a symbol of a national failure to build enough homes to meet demand. Interest rates are at record lows, and yet young people cannot afford to get onto the ladder, because prices are rising much faster than incomes.

February 08, 2017

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE GOVERNMENT'S HOUSING WHITE PAPER

Andrew Lloyd, Director at Search Acumen, comments: “The battle for a more efficient housing market has sprung into action with the publication of the Housing White Paper marking a vital acknowledgement of the current broken system. Planning for the right homes in the right places, building homes faster and diversifying the market are all welcomed ploys, but the announced modernisation of Land Registry mustn’t be overlooked as a leap in the right direction for our industry.

January 26, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #7: RETHINKING ‘QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY’

Andrew Lloyd - The ‘quality versus quantity’ discussion has been prevalent in conveyancing firms for as long as I can remember. Sacrifice one to achieve the other is the common perception – but should we really see these elements as mutually exclusive?

January 12, 2017

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #6: THE FRAUD-PROOF CONVEYANCER

Andrew Lloyd - There are few aspects of our lives that have not been revolutionised and re-revolutionised by the ongoing advances in the tech-sphere.   Conveyancing is no exception. The way data is sourced, held, interpreted and shared has transformed our sector and has the potential to lead us to new levels of productivity and efficiency. Search Acumen, for one, has built a model which lends itself to technology and all the benefits that come with using the very latest software and data storage, but we must be aware of the risks – new paths for fraud are opening as we take our lives online.

December 21, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S HMRC TRANSACTION DATA

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “With the end of 2016 in clear sight, the resilience of the commercial market is one that continues to surprise many. Counter to the pre-Brexit predictions of a meltdown, the number of non-residential transactions in November was 11% percent higher compared with the same month last year, growing 6% percent from October alone.

December 21, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON TODAY’S HMRC TRANSACTION DATA

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “With the end of 2016 in clear sight, the resilience of the commercial market is one that continues to surprise many. Counter to the pre-Brexit predictions of a meltdown, the number of non-residential transactions in November was 11% percent higher compared with the same month last year, growing 6% percent from October alone.

December 08, 2016

CONVEYANCING PRODUCTIVITY SOARS WITH A 55% RISE IN TRANSACTIONS PER CONVEYANCER OVER THREE YEARS

Productivity levels in the conveyancing market sped up by a significant 55% over three years to reach an average rate of 110 transactions per conveyancer last year, according to the first Conveyancing Productivity Index from conveyancing search provider Search Acumen.

December 07, 2016

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #5 – 2017 MUST BE A YEAR OF PRODUCTIVITY FOR CONVEYANCERS

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen, discusses the productivity challenge facing conveyancers and the launch of the Conveyancing Productivity Index.

December 06, 2016

DEALING WITH DONALD: IS THE PROPERTY INDUSTRY READY FOR THE UNEXPECTED?

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen, comments: A disunited European Union, a US election rocked by controversy and an underperforming Chinese economy – as 2016 enters its closing stages I’m sure economists far and wide will be glad to see the back of what has been a year of unpredictability. As our friends across the Atlantic come to terms with a Trump Presidency, all heads on UK soil remain focused on the divorce settlement with the EU, which will see uncertainty flow into 2017. There’s one thing property professionals can learn from these tumultuous times – to expect the unexpected.

November 24, 2016

THE GOVERNMENT’S DECISION NOT TO PRIVATISE LAND IS A LOGICAL CONCLUSION OF GOVERNMENT FOLLY

Andrew Lloyd, Managing Director of Search Acumen, comments: “Buried deep under the big housing announcements in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement was news which comes as a great victory for the property and legal industries – the official end to the government’s second attempt to privatise Land Registry.

November 23, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE CHANCELLOR’S AUTUMN STATEMENT, 23RD NOVEMBER

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “After his first and last Autumn Statement, the property market will be cautiously toasting the Chancellor’s opening bid to tackle the housing crisis with the £2.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund and the pledge that £3.15bn will be sent straight to the Capital to create 90,000 affordable homes.

November 22, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON MARKET CONFIDENCE AFTER BREXIT

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments: “After witnessing a 4.3% decrease between August and September, it is encouraging to see the seasonally adjusted UK property transaction count return to growth in October.

November 18, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER – Q3 2016 EDITION

Quarterly conveyancing activity fell by 5% between Q2 and Q3 as the UK property sector weathered the result of the EU referendum and consumer confidence was tainted by uncertainty, resulting in volumes nosediving from 286,485 in Q2 to 271,197 in Q3. Despite this, year-on-year activity was effectively flat, declining just 1% according to the Q3 edition of the Conveyancing Market Tracker from conveyancing search provider Search Acumen.

October 24, 2016

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #4 – DOES THE GOVERNMENT REALLY NEED TO REFORM THE HOUSE-BUYING PROCESS?

Andrew Lloyd - The government’s pending call for evidence on reforming the house-buying process has been welcomed by many who believe change from the top could deliver efficiencies and reduce the number of failed transactions. I, alongside many, have fully supported attempts to improve the consumer and solicitor experience

September 12, 2016

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #3: LAND REGISTRY RETHINK A VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE

Andrew Lloyd - The government is thinking again on Land Registry privatisation. If the abandonment of the sale is confirmed, this will be both a victory for common sense and a vindication of the property industry’s spirited campaign against the proposal over the past twelve months. Brexit or no Brexit, it is absolutely the right thing to do.

September 08, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON DCLG GREEN BELT STATISTICS

Andy Sommerville, Director at Search Acumen, comments on the release of today’s DCLG Green Belt Statistics for England 2015/16

September 06, 2016

SMALL FIRMS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF RECORD RISE IN CONVEYANCING

Despite pre-Brexit fears, the property market has boomed amid SDLT changes Property transactions in Q2 grew by almost a quarter year-on-year as buyers raced to beat changes to stamp duty land tax (SDLT), new research has found.

August 25, 2016

STAMP DUTY AFTERSHOCK TRIGGERS ROLLERCOASTER RIDE FOR CONVEYANCERS AHEAD OF BREXIT VOTE

Completed conveyancing activity in Q2 rose by nearly a quarter (24%) over the year as the market witnessed the aftershock of the 3% stamp duty tax hike • April 2016 saw the largest number of firms responsible for completed transactions at Land Registry since September 2014 • The top five ranked firms recorded the highest quarterly (17%) and yearly (41%) growth across the market in Q2 • Pre-Brexit rollercoaster ride pushes activity up 14% year-on-year in both May and June

August 17, 2016

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #2: SHOULD LAWYERS FOCUS ON BEING LAWYERS?

Andy Sommerville - It goes without saying that being a partner in a law firm involves plenty of hard work. The more senior your role, the more effort and time that needs to be allocated towards management and making the hard-hitting business decisions that will drive the firm’s growth. As you ascend the partnership’s management ladder, the amount of time you can spend on your regular ...

August 10, 2016

SLOUGH HAS MOST FOREIGN-OWNED PROPERTIES OUTSIDE LONDON

Slough has the highest proportion of properties owned by offshore companies outside London, according to an analysis of Land Registry data.

July 06, 2016

CONVEYANCING ACUMEN #1: CAN CONVEYANCING EVER BE EASY?

Andy Sommerville - Conveyancing is hard work. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently and believe it’s a fitting discussion point for my first contribution to Search Acumen’s new Conveyancing Acumen blog series.

June 16, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN AND LAND DATA ANNOUNCE WEBINAR TO BRING CONVEYANCERS UP TO SPEED ON CON 29 AND CON 29O CHANGES

Search Acumen, the conveyancing search provider, has partnered with Land Data – the NLIS regulator and leading authority on electronic land and property information – to host two editions of a webinar to help conveyancers prepare for changes to CON 29 and CON 29O .

June 15, 2016

FIRST COMBINED ONS-LAND REGISTRY HOUSE PRICE GROWTH DATA REVEALS NO SIGN OF A SLOWDOWN DESPITE BREXIT AND BUBBLE FEARS

UK average house prices have increased by 8.2% in the year to April 2016 (down from 8.5% in the year to March 2016), continuing the “strong growth” seen since the end of 2013, according to the latest UK House Price Index (UKHPI).

June 10, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN’S ANDREW LLOYD LOOKS BACK ON 15 YEARS IN CONVEYANCING AND SEARCHES

The acceleration in technological developments is set to change conveyancing even more than it has over the last fifteen years, are the thoughts of Search Acumen’s Managing Director, Andrew Lloyd as he looks back on his time in conveyancing searches.

June 07, 2016

CAN WE MAINTAIN CONVEYANCING TURNAROUND LEVELS?

My own impression is that it will take some time for the conveyancing market to get its head around what the first three months of the year delivered. Undoubtedly, this was an incredibly busy period and to say conveyancers were inundated with business seems like something of an understatement.

May 25, 2016

PROPERTY SALES PLUMMET AFTER STAMP DUTY HIKE

Residential property sales have plummeted following April’s rise in stamp duty, new government figures have revealed. According to HM Revenue and Customs, residential property transactions in April were 45% down on the previous month.

May 23, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER Q1 2016

The Q1 2016 edition of Search Acumen’s Conveyancing Market Tracker shows 275,002 transactions were registered in the first quarter of 2016. This was 10% up from Q1 2014, when 251,042 transactions were logged in the rush before the introduction of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR).

May 16, 2016

LAND REGISTRY: RAISE FEES, DON’T PRIVATISE, SAY CONVEYANCERS

The government does not need to resort to Land Registry privatisation to maximise returns in order to pay down the national debt, a trade body has said today. The Conveyancing Association says increasing the Land Registry registration fee and reversing a recent halving of fees for electronic registrations would ‘immediately’ double Land Registry’s income ‘yet is a relatively small burden for the homebuyer in amongst the other costs and charges involved in the process’.

April 28, 2016

AVERAGE HOUSE PRICES STALL IN MARCH ACCORDING TO LAND REGISTRY

Just two regions in England and Wales experienced house price rises in March according to price paid data released by Land Registry, with the average price down half of one percent. Whilst London and the East of the region experienced 0.2% increases, all other regions experienced slight decreases, from a 0.1% drop in the North West through to a 2.6% drop in Yorkshire and The Humber.

April 21, 2016

RICS PREDICTS MORE SUBDUED SALES GROWTH OVER COMING MONTHS DUE TO SDLT REFORMS

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors says the previously expected increase in house sales for the coming months will be dampened by the recent rush caused by Stamp Duty reforms.

April 05, 2016

62% RISE IN NEW BUILD BUSINESS FOR AVERAGE CONVEYANCING FIRMS SINCE 2010/11

Rise in planning approvals means new build searches look set to increase.

April 01, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN RELEASE 3D VIRTUAL REALITY SEARCH APP

Search Acumen has today become the first provider to announce a 3D virtual reality search app to meet the modern conveyancer’s needs. Conveyancers can now use the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to navigate Search Acumen’s portal and inspect title plans in three dimensions.

March 24, 2016

LAND REGISTRY FACES PRIVATISATION

The Land Registry is being put for up for sale less than two years after the Liberal Democrats blocked previous plans for a £1bn-plus privatisation. Sajid Javid, the business secretary, faced immediate criticism for announcing the selloff of the 150-year-old agency – which maintains records on the ownership of land and property across England and Wales – just as the Easter break was about to begin.

March 11, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE LATEST RICS RESIDENTIAL MARKET SURVEY

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments on the RICS Residential Market Survey for February 2016: “As expected, the residential market is now planning for the surge in buy-to-let purchases to begin tailing off.

February 29, 2016

ANNUAL HOUSE PRICE GROWTH GALLOPING OUT OF THE STALLS

According to new data from Land Registry, house prices across the UK are up 7.1% on the year with a 2.5% rise seen in the last month. London experienced the greatest increase in its average property value over the last 12 months with a movement of 13.9%.

February 23, 2016

NUMBER OF TRANSACTIONS UP 7.5% YEAR ON YEAR FOR JANUARY 2016

The number of residential transactions for properties worth more than £40,000 in January was 83,590 according to figures released by HMRC, up 7.5% on January 2015. Seasonally adjusted figures also suggest a slight dip from the norm, going from 109,020 in December to 105,940 in January.

February 16, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER Q4

The total number of active conveyancing firms declined at the fastest rate in three years during 2015, according to Search Acumen’s Conveyancer Market Tracker. This left the average firm to record 192 transactions in 2015, 10% above the average of 175 during 2014 despite the overall market remaining flat.

February 15, 2016

CONVEYANCERS – ‘NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY’

The conveyancing market consolidated at its fastest rate in three years in 2015, according to latest sector research.

January 21, 2016

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW SOMMERVILLE, DIRECTOR OF SEARCH ACUMEN

Jane Common, 21st January 2016 Today – 21st January 2016 – marks Andy Sommerville’s 30 years in the search industry. The co-owner and director of Search Acumen shared the secrets of his longevity in the business – and his success – with Today’s Conveyancer’s Jane Common...

January 15, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE ONS OUTPUT FIGURES – (NOVEMBER 2015)

Andy Sommerville, Director of Search Acumen, comments on the ONS output figures – (November2015): “Construction output was down again in November by 0.5%, a continuing a trend we have seen over the past few months. Public sector housing projects were significantly down – by over one fifth on the previous year – and commercial activity was also down.

January 11, 2016

SEARCH ACUMEN SETS A NEW ‘BIG DATA’ PRECEDENT

•Conveyancing search firm is the first to integrate the full Land Registry National Polygon Dataset •Title Intelligence 2.0 improves validation and further reduces the risk of incorrect orders •Technology creates time savings, giving conveyancers a ‘different way of working’

December 07, 2015

THE TALKTALK HACK – IS CYBER SECURITY MORE COMPLICATED THAN WE THINK?

The recent hacking of phone and broadband provider TalkTalk has raised plenty of questions among lawyers about how safe the internet really is. Is our information, stored in distant silicon towers, really protected? Has the penny dropped on IT security? Shouldn’t we be more guarded in our acceptance of new technology and systems?

December 02, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER Q3

Top 1,000 race ahead in busy conveyancing market. The conveyancing market picked up strongly in the third quarter of 2015 – with the top firms reaping a disproportionate share of the rewards, the latest edition of a regular benchmarking survey shows.

November 19, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN MARKS ITS SECOND BIRTHDAY BY DOUBLING ITS MARKET SHARE

Search Acumen, the conveyancing search provider, has marked its second anniversary by achieving its target of doubling its residential market share in just 12 months. The company, which was delivering 2.5% of all searches on residential property in October 2014, is now the data supplier of choice for 5% of the market.

November 13, 2015

25% RISE IN HOUSE PRICES PREDICTED

According to the latest data from RICS, house prices are expected to rise by 4.5% per annum over the next five years, resulting in a cumulative increase of around 25% by 2020.

October 27, 2015

ANOTHER FIRST AS SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES ‘PORTFOLIO CLOUD’

Search Acumen has launched its latest product, Portfolio Cloud, which allows conveyancers to conduct searches across entire portfolios through a single interface. The new product is the first of its kind for the commercial market and allows users to create and manage searches on multiple residential or commercial properties simultaneously.

September 23, 2015

RELATIONSHIP WITH CONVEYANCERS RUNS BOTH WAYS

As competition rises among conveyancers, brokers must proactively manage their clients’ expectations

August 24, 2015

CONVEYANCING FIRM NUMBERS DIP IN BUOYANT MARKET

The number of active conveyancing firms has fallen by 3% over the past year despite strong growth in the market, latest figures from a regular survey reveal. According to the Conveyancing Market Tracker published by searches company Search Acumen, the number of active firms rose very slighty in the second quarter of 2015, with 30 more registering transactions than in the first quarter. Year-on-year, however, firm numbers fell from 4,305 to 4,176. The number has declined by 11% over the past four years, the report notes, with 534 firms either merging or leaving the market.

August 18, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER Q2

Conveyancing activity broke records between April and June 2015, as total transactions reached their highest point for any second quarter of the post-recession era, according to the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the search provider.

July 29, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN APPOINTS CAROLINE ROBINSON

Her Appointment, as Business Development Manager, will steer a move into Commercial Real Estate and kick-start consultations with commercial property law firms

July 13, 2015

DEMAND SEES FURTHER MODERATE RISE WHILE PRICE MOMENTUM ACCELERATES

The June RICS Residential Market Survey shows a further acceleration in price growth with the headline price balance hitting an eleven month high of 40. Prices are reported to be rising in the majority of areas, with Northern Ireland and Eat Anglia seeing particularly firm momentum during the month. Driving this pick-up in growth was a further modest rise in demand across most parts of the UK alongside yet another decrease in the level of new instructions.

July 09, 2015

ANALYSIS: SPECIALISTS CONVEY THE BEST BUSINESS

The latest Conveyancing Market Tracker (Q1) from Search Acumen provides more evidence of the way the conveyancing market is heading.

June 25, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN APPOINTS ZOE DOBSON AS CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGER

Recruitment will help to maintain service commitment as the business continues to grow. Search Acumen has strengthened its team of experienced industry professionals by appointing Zoe Dobson as Client Relationship Manager. Zoe joins the business from Wessex Searches and increases the size of its Client Relationship Management team to four as Search Acumen continues its rapid growth.

June 24, 2015

PROPERTY TRANSACTIONS TICK UP IN MAY BUT THE OUTLOOK IS UNCERTAIN

The number of UK residential properties sold climbed in May, new data show. A total of 98,540 properties changed hands, according to figures released by HMRC yesterday. It marks a rise on April’s 97,610. However the market is slower than it was a year ago when 101,710 properties were sold. The figures translate to a year-on-year drop of three per cent

June 09, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN CONVEYANCING MARKET TRACKER Q1

Conveyancers face mounting pressure to maintain and grow their business as total transactions for the first quarter of 2015 fell 16% from Q4 2014 and 5% year-on-year, according to the Conveyancing Market Tracker from Search Acumen, the search provider.

June 09, 2015

BOLD LEGAL GROUP PARTNERS WITH METRO BANK AND SEARCH ACUMEN

CPD-accredited event will see industry experts discuss emerging issues in risk, compliance, fraud, technology and Veyo. Seminar will address business challenges as the market gains momentum. Bold Legal Group has partnered with Search Acumen and Metro Bank to host a free CPD-accredited seminar for conveyancers, bringing together a panel of industry experts to debate the latest issues affecting the market and its future growth.

May 26, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN ON TRACK TO DOUBLE IT'S MARKET SHARE

Search Acumen is on track to double its share of the conveyancing search market and hit its 5% target by its second anniversary. Mid-year trading data shows the company’s share of search activity leapt to 4% in the six months from October 2014 to March 2015, having stood at 2.5% at the end of its first year in business.

March 12, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN LAUNCHES ‘TITLE INTELLIGENCE’ FOR CONVEYANCERS

Using real time access to Land Registry data

February 26, 2015

SEARCH ACUMEN COMMENTS ON THE INFRASTRUCTURE ACT AND THE PLAN TO DIGITISE THE LOCAL LAND CHARGES REGISTER

The Infrastructure Bill gets Royal Assent before Parlimentry Recess

December 05, 2014

TO #SELFIE OR #UNSELFIE

“Help to Buy” or “Help to Build”?

November 18, 2014

WHEN YOU REACH THE END OF YOUR ROPE, TIE A KNOT AND HANG ON

Opportunity Knocks Part Three

October 27, 2014

IT’S A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT

Opportunity Knocks Part Two

October 10, 2014

“IF OPPORTUNITY DOESN’T KNOCK, BUILD A DOOR.” ~MILTON BERLE

Recognising Opportunity

September 05, 2014

THE POLITICS OF PROPERTY

Housing supply and affordability will be a key election issue

July 23, 2014

BE MORE URUGUAY?

No! Be More Germany!

May 06, 2014

GEEKS WIN

… and it gets Personal…. again.

April 08, 2014

INTELLIGENT CONVEYANCING

The Future is not what it used to be

April 01, 2014

VIRTUAL CONVEYANCERS

A solution to the staff recruitment crisis?

February 12, 2014

SMASH THE MACHINE?

Failure to embrace the opportunity new technology brings

November 08, 2013

THE PERFECT STORM?

Mark Riddick - 29th October 2013