Getting smart – steps towards making home buying easier

Members of the property industry have welcomed the passing of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI).

Once introduced, this will support the development of secure digital identity services which promise to speed up property purchases, reduce fraud and revolutionise the customer experience.

Smart data is the secure, consented sharing of customer data with authorised third parties (ATPs) who can then use the data to provide improved services, such as identity verification.

The UK government is not proposing to create any new services itself, instead, they expect the provisions in the bill to spur competition and innovation in the market.

Estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage lenders and other property industry stakeholders have worked with Etive, a digital data management solutions company, to simplify digital identity management for residential property sales.

MyIdentity allows the digital identity of a buyer or seller to be verified once and then shared by them with other parties involved in the sales transaction, reducing customer friction and duplication of effort.

Etive is now working with the Home Builders Federation to further develop the scheme to support homebuilders in complying with regulations and make identity and anti-money laundering checks easier, faster, and more secure.

Despite the advantages, there has been some reluctance from the sector to take up digital identities due to a lack of clarity on where liability would fall if any part of the system failed, how systems would be maintained and paid for, and who would regulate the process.

The DPDI bill seeks to answer many of these questions and establish a framework for the provision of digital verification services which can be used with the same confidence as paper documents.G

Currently, data protection is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018.