Lloyds Banking Group joins Open Property Data Association on mission to deliver better homebuying process

The UK's largest lender, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), has joined the Open Property Data Association (OPDA) on a mission to overhaul and speed up the home buying and selling process through a standardised approach to sharing of digital data. This creates an opportunity to make transactions quicker, more transparent, and easier for buyers and sellers. Currently, less than one per cent of property data is openly available in a digital format. Converting property data sources and documents to a digital format and making it shareable through open data standards is essential to support a digital homebuying experience. Removing manual processes and friction can reduce fraud and prevent transaction fall-throughs, all of which deliver huge benefits to consumers. OPDA’s aim is for every company, in every part of the mortgage and property chain, to share open data in a digital, standardised, and trusted format. LBG will support the Association in developing transparent data sharing practices, raising standards, creating a best practice across the property industry. Members of LBG’s leadership and technology teams will work alongside OPDA’s executive committee, which comprises 15 industry leaders, technology innovators and organisations to drive positive change. Through its mortgage lending brands and industry partners, LBG will support OPDA’s latest framework for property data standards. The framework is a standardised set of data and governance principles that includes a common data dictionary, a standardised way to describe property attributes and a methodology for sharing data with trust and provenance. LBG will further support the ongoing development of the trust and interoperability framework. The first stage of the new framework is freely available to the property industry and their software providers: from estate agents, through to lawyers, lenders and brokers, without any restrictive proprietary licences. Claire Cherrington, Head of Strategic and Technology Partnership at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “We are passionate about driving shareable data that can improve the end-to-end house buying process creating a safer, more trusted experience for customers.“ “We are right behind OPDA in their mission to change the way people buy and sell houses by implementing open data standards and encouraging transparent data sharing across the residential property sector.” Maria Harris, Chair of OPDA, said: “Lloyds Banking Group joining us is a momentous step forward for open data sharing and a huge endorsement of our mission. Having Lloyds Banking Group as an OPDA member is fantastic; it will help us get the message across to the property market that open data standards are fundamental to digitising transactions and that we can deliver a better experience for everyone. Having accurate and trustable data about our property is vital to give people and the industry confidence.”