Nationwide has become a participant in a year-long initiative to expedite the home buying process through enhanced digitization with Digital Home Buying Campaign.

Digital Home Buying Campaign the organization has aligned with the Open Property Data Association, which advocates for universal access to identical property information across the mortgage and property sectors, ensuring this data is digital, standardized, and reliable.

This year, the association has introduced a framework for property data standards, offering free and shareable data tools throughout the property industry.

Nationwide is set to promote consumer awareness and drive industry engagement regarding the essence and necessity of digital home buying campaign. Already contributing to the open data standards, Nationwide will implement and propagate the adoption of OPDA’s framework within their solutions and among their industry and technology partners.

Henry Jordan, Nationwide’s Director of Home, states: “We are fully committed to enhancing the comprehensive house buying and homeownership journey. Our association with OPDA is a significant part of this commitment as data standardization is crucial for achieving improvements. We bring extensive mortgage experience along with customer engagement and insights to ensure data is shareable, creating a safer, more trusted experience for customers.”

Rob Stevens, Nationwide’s Head of Property Risk, adds: “We ardently support OPDA’s mission to revolutionize the house buying and selling process by implementing open data standards, improving technology and security measures, and fostering transparent data sharing across the mortgage and broader property sector. Accurate and reliable property data is essential for instilling confidence in the market.”

The association asserts that converting all property data sources and documents to a digital format and making them shareable is crucial for streamlining the homebuying process, as currently, less than one per cent of property information is available digitally.

Often, the same information is requested up to five times by various entities such as lenders, estate agents, and solicitors.

Having a singular version of the data will simplify the process and improve turnaround times, reducing the period between having an offer accepted and the exchange. It claims that shareable and reliable data will also diminish fraud and prevent transaction failures, significantly benefiting consumers.

Maria Harris, Chair of OPDA, remarks: “Nationwide’s membership signifies another substantial milestone in our mission to fundamentally transform the homebuying process for the better. Having a well-known and respected brand like Nationwide as an OPDA member will significantly amplify the importance of open data standards in digitizing property transactions.”

The association is collaborating with the government, through the Digital Property Market Steering Group and the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to advocate the adoption of open data standards.

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