NatWest has become the latest mortgage lender to join the Open Property Data Association (OPDA).

The bank follows HSBC last month, Nationwide in July and Lloyds Banking Group in March.

OPDA is the first organisation of its kind and is aiming to improve the homebuying process by sharing digital property information across the mortgage market.

Currently, homebuying is taking on average 22 weeks to reach completion with less than 1% of property information available digitally.

OPDA is calling on the Government to deliver digitised property data at source, which includes information from the Land Registry, planning permissions, building safety, and local authority searches. It is also asking for more clarity for the industry on executing a fully digital home buying market.

“Speeding up the homebuying journey and making it a simpler, clearer and more customer-focused process is core to what we’re trying to achieve as a bank,” said head of mortgage distribution at NatWest, Brad Fordham.

“Joining OPDA is an important signal of our commitment to driving up standards of transparency and collaboration across all parts of the homebuying journey and we look forward to seeing that continue to improve.”

Chair of OPDA, Maria Harris, said: “To have NatWest join us so soon after other large mortgage lenders is a key moment, not just for us at OPDA, but also for the homebuying sector. NatWest’s support reinforces how absolutely vital open data standards are in digitising property transactions and the commitment from industry to make this happen.

“Together, NatWest and our other lending members’ ability to reduce the industry’s attachment to forms-based thinking and siloed approaches will have a fundamental impact on improving the poor customer experience of the homebuying process.”

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