Making Reservation Agreements A Normal Part of the Home Buying & Selling Process

In 2019, Government let a contract with Kantar Public to help Government to design and trial a reservation agreement which buyers and sellers of homes could use. The purpose of this research was two-fold, Firstly, to determine whether consumers and industry would be willing to make use of reservation agreements and then secondly and only providing that Kantar could demonstrate industry and consumer support, for Kantar to carry out a trial of reservation agreements. Once this trial had been concluded, Government could then make a determination about an appropriate way forward.

Kantar successfully completed the first phase of their research carrying out research with industry and consumers. At the start of 2020, they submitted a report to MHCLG (now DLUHC) which summarised their findings and recommended that the work should proceed to a formal trial. In early March 2020, Ministers agreed that this work should proceed to a trial. However, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the housing market and then the subsequent recovery sparked by a stamp duty holiday distorted the level of transactions and meant that a trial during 2020 was not possible.

This Contract covers the resumption of this work and the start of a trial of reservation agreements. For the purposes of continuity, Kantar were commissioned to continue/conclude the work.