The Intermediary – June 2025 - Flipbook - Page 10
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
here was a school of
thought – sensible
in theory, wrong in
practice – that the
recent Stamp Duty
threshold changes
would trigger a noticeable drop-off
in transaction volumes. Less urgency
to act due to those greater costs,
resulting in demand and activity
dropping off. It sounded plausible,
T
looked logical, but certainly from our
perspective, it hasn’t happened.
The market’s still ticking along,
buyers are still buying, movers are still
moving, and that persistent hum of
conveyancing activity hasn’t soened.
If anything, the opposite. Which
means one thing: conveyancers are
under just as much pressure as they
were pre-change, and probably always
will be. The shortage, for example, of
‘bums on seats’ in the sector doesn’t
look like it’s going to be filled.
So, what happens next? My
view is that conveyancing
fees will go up – they
already are, and
they should.
HARPAL SINGH
is CEO at conveybuddy
Why? Well, for a start, I’m not
sure there’s another part of the
homebuying journey where the
service demanded is so high and
yet the price paid is still stuck
somewhere in 2016.
We sold our previous business eight
years ago, and I can tell you with
absolute certainty that conveyancing
fees haven’t shied much since then.
Meanwhile, inflation has increased
massively – so have house prices, and
prey much everything else associated
with the market.
Yet we still hear complaints when
a law firm asks for £100 more on a
case. Madness. It’s part of the reason
why, for so long, firms have been
locked in a race to the boom. Lower
fees. Bigger caseloads. More strain.
Worse service.
But something’s changing.
The smarter firms – the ones that
understand their value – are puing
their prices up. Not because they want
to be greedy, but because they know
what it costs to deliver a good service.
They know that without good service,
clients suffer, and brokers are le
picking up the pieces.
Let’s be honest, those cost pressures
are real. The recent increase in
National Insurance (NI) contributions
has hit many firms square in the face.
Overheads have gone up across the
board, from payroll to professional
indemnity insurance. Firms have to