NatWest has become the latest of the UK's big mortgage lenders to join the Open Property Data Association (OPDA), backing efforts to bring a standardised approach to sharing digital data in the home buying process.
NatWest joins HSBC, Nationwide and Lloyds in backing the Association, which is working to develop transparent, standardised data sharing practices that would make buying and selling homes faster and simpler.
Other members of OPDA include Atom bank, PEXA, and Coadjute.
OPDA has already delivered open property data standards and models for shareable data using open-source tools created and tested across every sector across the property industry.
The group says that those using its data standards for digital property packs have seen time reduced from mortgage offer and purchase accepted to exchange of contracts to within 15 days.
The Association also has a campaigning remit, calling on the government to deliver digitised property data at source including HMLR, planning permissions, building safety, and local authority searches as promised in 2018, and to provide clarity to the industry on executing a fully digital home buying market.
Brad Fordham, head of mortgage distribution at NatWest, says: “Speeding up the homebuying journey and making it a simpler, clearer and more customer-focused process is core to what we’re trying to achieve as a bank.
“Joining OPDA is an important signal of our commitment to driving up standards of transparency and collaboration across all parts of the homebuying journey and we look forward to seeing that continue to improve.”