Estate agent texts, viewings and material information

HMRC counted 1,144,570 residential property transactions in the UK in the year to March 2026, about 70,000 fewer than the 1,214,710 of the year before. Those figures come from the monthly statistics HMRC published on 30 September 2026, built from stamp duty records and their Scottish and Welsh equivalents. Each of those completions sat at the end of a run of viewings, offers, counter-offers and chain updates, and in most branches a lot of that traffic now goes by text.

Two sets of rules shape what those texts say. One is the duty not to leave out material information, which since 6 April 2025 sits in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. The other is older and more specific: the duty to pass on offers promptly and in writing, which The Property Ombudsman's code says a text can meet. Neither was written with texts in mind, but both apply to them.

How many homes change hands, and when?

HMRC's series runs back to 2005. Over the last decade it has stayed between about 1.0 million and 1.37 million a year, with the low of 1,000,690 in 2023 to 2024 and the high of 1,370,370 in 2021 to 2022.

The monthly figures show how much timing depends on deadlines that have nothing to do with the property. In March 2025, 165,690 residential transactions completed across the UK, almost double the month before. In April there were 56,970. HMRC's commentary says plainly that the peak and the drop were "caused by transactions brought forward ahead of the SDLT threshold reductions from 1 April 2025". Plenty of those March completions had a chain of people waiting on the phone to hear whether it would make the date.

The latest month, August 2026, came to 95,220 on HMRC's seasonally adjusted estimate, 2% down on a year earlier. HMRC adds a caution that's useful for anyone reading the figures as a market signal: completions come "on average two to four months after an initial offer is made". Two to four months of updates, in other words, for every sale in the chart.

What counts as material information now?

Section 227 of the 2024 Act says a commercial practice involves a misleading omission if it "omits material information", and it defines material information as "information that the average consumer needs to take an informed transactional decision". Omitting includes giving the information "in a way that is unclear or untimely" or "in such a way that the consumer is unlikely to see it". The section came into force on 6 April 2025.

The Act doesn't list what's material for a house. The government's own consultation on material information in property listings, which ran from 6 October to 29 December 2025, says so directly, and adds that "no sector-specific guidance has been produced since the DMCCA has come into effect". What it does say is that some information is always material, including the main characteristics of the property, the trader's identity and address and the total price including taxes, and that "the listing should not omit information, for example, that could lead the purchaser to rule out the property if it is revealed at a later stage".

Respondents were asked which categories guidance should cover. Of 144 answers, 56% named tenure, 56% sewerage, 54% ground rent or service charge, 52% planning permission and 50% flood risk. In its response, published in the roadmap updated on 19 June 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it will publish non-statutory guidance explaining "existing responsibilities under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024", and that "stakeholders should have regard for the guidance as soon as it is published". We couldn't find it published as of 22 October 2026. The longer-term plan, legislation for sales packs prepared before listing, is "when parliamentary time allows".

In the meantime the enforcer has said what it looks at. The National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team's guidance page notes that "all guidance is currently under review", but its Op Robin information sheet, dated August 2026, lists what it checks in property adverts under the 2024 Act: tenure (verified against the Land Registry), price, lease length where it applies, ground rent and service charge, council tax, property type, floorplans or measurements, the redress logo and the agent's trading address. It also looks for information that "does not self-corroborate", meaning the listing says one thing and the information pack another.

Where a text fits

A 160-character text can't carry a full listing, and section 227 recognises that. It tells a court to consider "any limitations resulting from the means of communication used in the commercial practice (including limitations of space or time)" and "any steps taken by the trader to overcome those limitations by providing information by other means". A text that points to the full listing is one of those steps.

The practical reading is that a text shouldn't contradict the listing, and the things that would make someone rule a property out belong in the first message where there's room for them. A viewing confirmation for a leasehold flat is a good example. Tenure, years left on the lease and the service charge fit in a line, and including them means nobody drives across town on a Saturday to learn the lease has 68 years left.

Offers in writing, and a text counts

The duty to pass on offers is in the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991, made under the Estate Agents Act 1979. Schedule 3 lists as an undesirable practice "the failure by an estate agent to forward to his client promptly and in writing accurate details" of any offer received, unless the client has said in writing they don't want offers of that kind.

The Property Ombudsman (TPO) code, which its member agents in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must follow, turns that into a deadline. Paragraph 9a says agents must tell sellers about all offers "as soon as is reasonably possible" and "must confirm each offer in writing to the seller, and to the buyer who made it, within 2 working days". The code's glossary defines written, in writing, as including "typed or hand-written letters, records or notes, emails, texts, other forms of digital messages and faxes".

A few other paragraphs in the code read like a list of texts waiting to be sent:

• 8b: record viewings and feedback, and "pass this to the seller within an agreed timescale".
• 8c: before arranging a viewing, tell the buyer if an offer has already been accepted subject to contract.
• 9c: keep "a written or electronic contemporaneous record of all offers", including the date and time and the seller's response.
• 9f: keep buyers who have made offers informed that other offers have been submitted.
• 12a: after acceptance, monitor progress and, where there's a chain, "routinely check the immediate transactions and communicate information helpful to bringing your client's transaction to fruition".

A text thread does a lot of that record-keeping by itself, with a timestamp on every message in both directions.

The texts around a sale

These are written for a made-up agency, Mercer Homes, and each fits in one part. The viewing confirmation to the buyer, carrying the rule-out facts and a link to the rest:

Mercer Homes: viewing booked at 14 Elm Rd, Sat 7 Nov, 11:00. Leasehold, 92 yrs left, service charge £1,450/yr. Details: example.co.uk/p/1482. Reply C to confirm

The seller's notice of tomorrow's viewings:

Mercer Homes: 2 viewings at your home tomorrow (Sat), 11:00 and 11:45. Sam will accompany both. Reply if anything changes.

Feedback, sent the same afternoon:

Mercer Homes: feedback from today's 11:00 viewing: liked the garden, unsure about the kitchen size. No offer yet. Sam will call you on Monday.

The offer to the seller, which with the email that follows is the written confirmation the code asks for:

Mercer Homes: offer received for 14 Elm Rd: £285,000 from a first-time buyer with a mortgage in principle. Details by email. Sam will call to discuss.

The acknowledgement to the buyer who made it:

Mercer Homes: we've passed your offer of £285,000 on 14 Elm Rd to the seller today. We'll text and email you their answer.

And the chain update, the one buyers and sellers otherwise ring the office to ask for:

Mercer Homes: update on 14 Elm Rd: the buyer's survey is booked for Tue 10 Nov. Nothing needed from you yet. We'll text again once it's done.

Bank details never go in a text, from either side, and the completion texts should say so. Payment diversion fraud aims straight at the money that moves at completion, and our post on law firms and payment diversion fraud explains how a text from a known number can help a client spot it.

Property alerts and valuation texts

Everything above is a service message in the ICO's terms, sent "for administrative or customer services purposes" to people in the middle of a transaction, so it needs no marketing consent. Alerts are different. A text telling an applicant about a new instruction promotes a property and your service, and the ICO's guidance says a message that "actively promotes or encourages people to make use of a particular service" is likely to be direct marketing. Applicants who registered and asked to be told about matching homes have consented, and that's the cleanest basis. A text to past vendors offering a free valuation is marketing too, and needs consent or the soft opt-in, with a simple way to opt out in every message. The ICO's electronic mail guidance says the soft opt-in "does not apply to prospective customers or new contacts". Our guide to UK SMS marketing rules has the detail.

Chains, and why the updates matter

MHCLG's roadmap says that "around one in 3 transactions fall through", and that fall-throughs cost consumers about £400 million a year. Its list of causes includes that buyers and sellers "often can't see which elements of their transaction have been progressed, what remains outstanding, or who is responsible for delays". A weekly chain text doesn't fix a failed survey. It does stop a buyer three links down from hearing about it third-hand, and it gives the agent a record that the update went out.

CaptiFi Connect gives a branch a UK mobile number with a two-way inbox shared across team logins, so the negotiator who booked the viewing and the one covering on Saturday see the same thread. Tracked links show whether the link to the full details page was clicked, which is a useful thing to know when a buyer later says nobody mentioned the service charge. And the viewing confirmation above, with its lease length in the first line, is the text that answers that question before anyone asks it.