What is a sales pack?

Under the government's home buying reform, sellers and estate agents will need to provide key information up front when a property is listed, including the home's condition, searches, leasehold costs and chain status. The detail is being worked out with industry, with legislation planned by the end of this Parliament.

When do sales packs become mandatory?

Not yet. In 2026 the government is working with industry on voluntary sales pack information and a Code of Practice for agents, with consultations to follow and legislation planned by the end of the Parliament. Getting information ready early is encouraged now; the legal requirement comes later.

Why is the government changing the process?

Because it fails so often. Around one in three transactions falls through, costing consumers around £400 million a year, and an average purchase takes roughly 120 days. The government expects upfront information to cut around four weeks from buying times and save first-time buyers an average of £650.

What should sellers do now?

Get the information a buyer will eventually see in order before listing: title and tenure, the EPC, guarantees and consents, and an honest picture of the property's history and risks. Sellers who prepare early give buyers fewer reasons to renegotiate or walk away at survey time.

Does a property report count as a sales pack?

No. The official sales pack does not exist yet, and its final contents will be set by legislation. What a property report does today is gather the official records a buyer will look at, so sellers can find and fix surprises before marketing rather than during conveyancing.

For sellers and buyers

Home buying reform 2026: what sales packs mean for you

In June 2026 the government set out the biggest shake-up of buying and selling homes in decades: key information about a property, provided up front at the point of listing, instead of discovered by the buyer months into the purchase. Here is what is actually changing, when, and what is worth doing about it now.

In short: sellers and agents will eventually be required to prepare a "sales pack" before listing, covering things like the home's condition, searches, leasehold costs and chain status. It is not law yet: 2026 is a voluntary phase, with legislation planned by the end of this Parliament. The direction of travel is clear, and preparing information early already pays off today.

Why the process is being reformed

The numbers behind the announcement explain it. An average purchase takes around 120 days. Roughly one in three transactions falls through before completion, costing the consumers involved around £400 million a year. Most of that failure happens because material information, about condition, lease terms, title problems or the chain, surfaces late, after buyer and seller have both spent money and months. Moving that information to the start of the process is the whole idea.

The government expects the reforms to cut around four weeks from buying times and save first-time buyers an average of £650, with a package that also includes digital property logbooks, digital identity checks and e-signatures.

What is changing, and when

Now to late 2026: a voluntary phase. The government is working with industry on what a sales pack should contain, alongside non-statutory guidance on material information in listings and a new Code of Practice for estate agents.
2027: a consultation on mandatory qualifications for estate and letting agents, part of a wider professionalisation of the industry.
By the end of this Parliament: legislation requiring sales packs to be prepared before a property is listed, including searches and a property condition report, together with moves towards binding contracts earlier in the process.

Two honest caveats. Timelines of this kind slip, and the final contents of the pack will be set by the legislation, not by today's announcements. Anyone selling you a "compliant sales pack" in 2026 is ahead of the law, because there is nothing yet to comply with.

What it means if you are selling

The practical shift is that preparation moves to before listing. Sellers who assemble their information early, title and tenure, the EPC, guarantees, consents for past work, and an honest picture of the property's risks, give buyers fewer reasons to renegotiate at survey time or walk away. That is already true today: fall-throughs cost sellers real money under the current rules, and the reform simply formalises what well-prepared sellers already do. Our guide to the documents you need to sell a house covers the paperwork, and a property report gathers the official records for your own home so you see what a buyer will see, before they do.

What it means if you are buying

More information up front, eventually by right. Until then, the burden of early research stays with you, and it is worth carrying: the checks that will one day sit in the sales pack, sold history, tenure, flood risk, the EPC, planning designations, are already on public record for anyone who looks. Our pre-offer checklist walks through them, and HouseLens puts most of them on the Rightmove or Zoopla listing while you browse.

Agents are being held to a higher bar too

Alongside sales packs, the reform brings a Code of Practice for property agents in 2026 and a consultation on mandatory qualifications in 2027. For sellers choosing an agent, the direction is welcome and overdue, and it makes an agent's actual track record more relevant, not less: qualifications set a floor, but performance is still what sells your home. That is the comparison we exist for.

See your home the way a buyer will

Official-source property reports: title, sold history, EPC, flood and more, for any address in England and Wales.

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