News and reports

The property market remains an attractive target for money laundering because of the value of property assets and the ability to hide ownership through companies, trusts, and overseas structures. An estimated £6.7 billion of UK property was bought with wealth suspected to have come from questionable sources between 2016 and 2022 — yet the National Crime Agency (NCA) reports that the volume of SARs from the property sector remains low.

As periods of hot weather become more frequent and intense, overheating in homes is moving from a comfort issue to a health, safety, and property management concern. For professional agents, the key risk is not simply that a home feels warm in summer, but that the property design, condition, or management allows indoor temperatures to become excessively high and potentially harmful to occupiers.

Sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000 should now be using Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD), and further deadlines in 2027 and 2028 will bring many more agents, property owners, and businesses into the new system. MTD requires affected taxpayers to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates to HMRC using compatible software.

New analysis has shown that the average UK house now costs 1.7 times as much as the average flat, the greatest disparity since records began. The findings underline the growing impact that leasehold complexity, service charges, ground rent, and uncertainty around reform are having on buyer confidence, especially in England and Wales where flats are most sold on a leasehold basis.

From 2031, privately rented non-domestic buildings over 1,000 sqm in England and Wales will be expected to meet EPC B, where it is cost-effective. Buildings below 1,000 sqm are expected to remain as the current minimum EPC E. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DENZ) has stated the changes will only take effect after Parliament has passed secondary legislation.

The next Vice-Presidents for the sales and lettings divisions, alongside a Propertymark Board member re-elected for a second term, have been appointed following the 2026 leadership elections. The results were announced at Propertymark’s AGM on Friday, 19 June 2026, where attendees also heard from the incoming divisional Presidents, Kim Lidbury MARLA and Ian Harris FNAEA MARLA.

The UK Government has set out its plans for reform, with changes aimed at making transactions faster, clearer, and more reliable. The roadmap points towards a more structured, more digital, and more accountable system which aims to reduce delays and fall-throughs. It will also place greater expectations on agents to gather, explain, share, and manage information from the start of the process.

Building on the momentum of previous years, we stepped up in scale, ambition and impact, bringing the profession together for a high-energy day of policy insight, practical learning, networking and sector-wide debate. More than a conference, Propertymark One was a meeting point for the profession at a time when agents are navigating significant legislative, economic, and technological change.

Just days after launch, Connect is already creating new business opportunities for members, with more than 2,000 registered users on the platform. Propertymark’s exclusive referral and lead-generation platform enables members to send and receive referrals, valuation requests and instructions through a trusted network of qualified property professionals across the UK and internationally.