Reservation Agreements – The Future As anybody who has tried to move will know the buying and selling of residential property in the UK can be a long and precarious process. Typical transactions take three to four months to legally complete and 20% to 30% of all sales fall through for a variety of reasons. The government are exploring the merits of reservation agreements that may bind sales together at early stages. The discussions are in their infancy and a decision some way off but say they see the “potential merits of introducing a process whereby the formal acceptance of a home purchase offer creates a legally binding contract between the buyer and the seller.” The government are also looking on to the digitalisation of the conveyancing process to speed up transactions. Watch this space!