Coadjute, a network for decentralised workflow and data sharing within the property industry, have agreed a project with NatWest and a consortium of leading property software providers to create a new home buying journey leveraging blockchain, or rather, distributed ledger technology.
The purpose of this consortium led project is to speed up and simplify the entire home buying process and bring it to life through a NatWest companion mobile banking app. The consortium has been formed with leading software providers from each stage of the home buying process Dezrez Estate Agency Software, Redbrick Solutions Conveyancing Software, eTech Surveyor Software, Search Acumen Property Data, Conveyancing Data Services Property Data, LMS Panel Management Software.
Coadjute will work with NatWest to design a new end to end home buying journey for their customers by connecting each leading software provider’s platform to build a decentralised home buying network. Distributed Ledger Technology allows the information required to secure a mortgage and finalise an offer to buy, to be seamlessly shared between each party on the network. As a result, the whole home buying process should be significantly faster and efficient. The project will ultimately aim to provide NatWest customers with complete transparency over the entire home buying process via a companion app. Consequently, customers should feel more in control, confident and supported.
Coadjute’s technology was previously used in a ground-breaking Instant Property Network trial involving the test sale of a home using blockchain. The trial, which involved 40 global organisations including RBS and Clifford Chance was one of the first of its kind. It showcased how the entire conveyancing process could be reduced to three weeks.
Dan Salmons, Director of Mortgage Innovation at NatWest said, “We are committed to finding innovations that make our customer’ lives easier, and know that the complexity of conveyancing is a key pain point for many. The Coadjute consortium has brought all the parties involved together to create a single mobile app, and used distributed ledger technology to make the customer journey safe and seamless. We believe the approach has the potential to be a real game-changer, not just for our customers but for the entire property market.”
John Reynolds, CEO and Founder of Coadjute said, “Customer adoption will be driven by businesses coming together to provide a joined-up service. Even at this stage, we have connected up 12% of the mortgages market, 1,000 estate agency brands, 4,000 conveyancers, and 80% of all property valuation instructions. With a pipeline of leading platform providers signed up and ready to onboard, we will have a significant percentage of the property industry on the platform when it goes live.
“We envisage a time when Coadjute-enabled businesses will be the go-to choice for all customers to get a mortgage and move home in one simple, fast and secure digital journey.”
Richard Price, Managing Director of Dezrez, said: “One of the biggest stresses in the home buying process is a lack of transparency for consumers – everyone hates not knowing what is going on. Whilst estate agents, solicitors, surveyors and banks are working hard in the background the consumer is unaware of progress. The Rezi platform was built to break down these barriers by utilizing modern technology to connect disparate software systems. We are excited to be part of this innovative group of companies with one aim; to create an end-to-end customer journey. As a result, estate agents will be able to continue to provide their customers with valuable information and benefit from a speedier sales process”.
Martin MacDuff, CEO Redbrick Solutions said, “Our clients sit in the middle of the process and often have to deal with frustrated consumers who are trying to complete a complex process that they only complete a few times in their life. Our case management software assists users in speeding up the process and providing a better service to those consumers. To have better transparency across all stages of the process would increase this exponentially. This trial opens up the possibility of radically improved communications between the estate agent, lender, surveyor and conveyancer and the creation of a shared view of processes meaning the customer knows exactly which step in the process they are at and what remains to be done; importantly they will get the same status regardless of which business they speak to.”
Jim Driver, Managing Director of eTech said, “The valuation process has been radically transformed in the past five years, helping to speed up the end to end mortgage lending journey. Our software enables surveying firms to optimise the use of their Surveyor resource, improve the accuracy of report completion and engage the customer in booking their own survey appointments. We are excited to be contributing to what promises to be a transformation of the home moving experience for consumers.”
Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS said, “The interaction between lenders and conveyancers has been transformed over the past decade, with digital services conveyancers can be requested, instructed and working within hours. We believe getting simpler levels of connectivity across the entire home buying journey will create benefits for both consumers, conveyancers and lenders”.
Christian Woodhouse, Head of Data and Strategic Products of Search Acumen, said: “We’re in a very exciting time for property/PropTech innovation where we’re able to back up the market hype around distributed ledger technology with meaningful action.
“Anyone who has bought or sold a property understands the frustration of the painfully slow and complex process that relies of inefficient, often paper-based correspondence between lawyers. We’re pleased to be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking project that could significantly improve the efficiency and transparency of the property transaction process for lawyers through digital innovations.”
Matthew Joy, Sales & Marketing Director of Conveyancing Data Services, said: “The time taken to complete the searches and gather property information has long been a source of friction. The ability to surface search data earlier means that due diligence processes no longer need to start from a blank sheet of paper”.
David E. Rutter, CEO of R3 said, “The promise of blockchain technology is gathering pace day by day, and it is use cases such as this one that are testament to its potential to transform industry status quos. The property sector is one which has benefitted and will continue to benefit immensely from digital transformation, overhauling processes that historically have been lengthy and cumbersome.
“We are proud that Corda is the platform to support this initiative from NatWest and look forward to helping more consumers to move home seamlessly and successfully”.
The project is working towards launching its Minimum Viable Product in 2020.
Coadjute’s proposition is further strengthened by the team’s work with HM Land Registry’s Digital Street project, where they beat a number of large corporations to win a major R&D project to use distributed ledger technology to explore connecting a central land registry with businesses.
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