Chris Loaring, Managing Director of Landmark Legal considers what trends property lawyers and conveyancers may see as we move through 2021:
“When reflecting on 2020, it was certainly not the year we had expected or planned for, yet despite the unexpected twists and turns of the last 12-months, the property market completed the year with record residential instructions and increasing pressure to complete transactions as quickly as possible as we head towards the March SDLT deadline.
“Looking ahead, there are three trends that I believe will make their mark this year.
“1. Market Consolidation
As I see it, this existing trend of market consolidation will be accelerated in what is likely to be a challenging and increasingly competitive marketplace. I believe we are set to see more acquisitions or mergers taking place in our industry with consolidation happening across our legal customer base.“2. Supplier Simplification
In line with the market consolidation activities, I believe that many businesses will be actively reviewing their supplier network to make it more efficient and effective. As such, a trend we are likely to see across the course of the coming months will be lawyers assessing supplier relationships to ensure the firms they work with are aligned with their growth aspirations, and can deliver what they need to support them in reaching these goals.“3. Digitisation
2021 will be the year that the long-discussed trend of digitisation will really start to make a meaningful difference. For example, there’s renewed focus to integrate a UPRN-based property insight template approach across the industry, which will be an interesting development to monitor.“Of course, in amongst all of this we will be continuing to emerge from the ongoing effects of the COVID pandemic, the resulting outcomes following Brexit and the aftermath of the Stamp Duty holiday. One thing is for sure, 2021 is unlikely to be a quiet one for our industry! Yet, no matter what happens, we will be here to support our customers in delivering the data insights, reports and workflows that are relied upon every day.”
https://www.landmark.co.uk/landmark-legal
This article was submitted to be published by Landmark Information Group as part of their advertising agreement with Today’s Conveyancer. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Conveyancer.
