How Homebuying Reforms Could Increase the Need for Pre-Sale Structural Surveys

What is changing?

In June 2026 the government announced plans to improve the homebuying and selling process in England by increasing the information available upfront and bringing greater certainty earlier in a transaction. The stated aims are to speed up sales, cut costs and reduce the large share of agreed sales that currently fall through. The detail will be consulted on and legislated over time, so this is a direction of travel rather than rules that apply today, but the intent is clear. In simple terms:

• Sellers and estate agents may be expected to provide more key information earlier
• Upfront "sales packs" are intended to give buyers more confidence at the point of listing
• Digital property records and tools are intended to make information easier to share
• The reforms aim to reduce delays and failed transactions
• More property information may be considered before a buyer commits

You can read the government's own announcement on GOV.UK. The reforms focus on general home information and condition reporting; they do not create a new structural survey requirement. What they change is the timing, condition questions move earlier, where sellers have more time to act on them.

The market is going digital, and information is moving upfront

This sits within a wider shift. A government and industry coalition, the Digital Property Market Steering Group, brings together HM Land Registry, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the Law Society, conveyancers, lenders and estate agents to digitise property transactions and make trusted information available to all parties from the outset. Its working themes include upfront information, digital identity, digital deeds and making property data easier to share between professionals. The common thread is the same as the reforms above, get the facts about a property on the table early, so fewer sales stall on a late surprise.

For sellers, that direction matters. As more about a property is expected upfront, its structural condition becomes part of the picture a buyer and their advisers weigh from the start. A pre-sale structural review is a simple way to have a clear, engineer-backed answer ready before questions are asked, rather than scrambling to respond once a buyer's surveyor has raised a concern. It does not make a structural survey compulsory, no rule does that, but it puts structural certainty among the upfront information that helps a sale proceed smoothly.

Surveyors and structural engineers, working together

More upfront information does not remove the need for specialist judgement, it makes it easier to reach the right specialist sooner. RICS, the surveyors' professional body, supports the reforms but is clear that professional expertise still matters and that complex issues need detailed investigation rather than a tick-box answer. The experience in Scotland, where sellers already provide an upfront Home Report, bears this out: a meaningful share of buyers still commission their own further survey before they commit.

This is where a surveyor and a structural engineer do different jobs. A RICS home survey or condition report looks across the whole property and will flag a structural concern such as cracking or movement, but it is a structural engineer who diagnoses the cause, judges how serious it is and advises what, if anything, to do about it. So as condition information moves upfront, the structural questions it raises move upfront too, and that is exactly what a pre-sale structural review answers. Our guide on the difference between a structural survey and a building survey explains where each one fits.

Why structural issues matter

Most of the things that slow a sale down are not surprises in principle, they are surprises in timing. Cracks, signs of movement, suspected subsidence, previous wall removals, loft conversions, extensions and missing structural calculations can all unsettle a buyer if they surface late, during the survey or in conveyancing. At that point the buyer often has limited information and plenty of caution, which is when prices get renegotiated and deals collapse. The same issue raised early, with an engineer's explanation attached, is far easier to deal with calmly.

What is a pre-sale structural survey?

A pre-sale structural survey is a structural engineer's assessment of a property focused on its structure, cracks, movement, foundations, retaining walls, previous alterations and visible defects. It is not a full RICS HomeBuyer Survey or Building Survey, and it does not replace one, nor legal advice or Building Control approval. Instead, it answers the engineering question a buyer's surveyor is most likely to raise: is there structural movement here, and if so, what does it mean? Our pre-sale structural review sets out what that involves in practice.

When sellers should consider one

A pre-sale structural review is worth considering where a property has a structural history a buyer's surveyor is likely to probe:

• Visible cracks
• Suspected movement
• Older properties
• Victorian and Edwardian houses
• Previous alterations
• Missing calculations
• Loft conversions
• Wall removals
• Extension defects
• Retaining wall concerns
• A history of subsidence

If you are unsure whether the cracking in a particular property is a genuine concern, our guide on when cracks are structural is a useful starting point.

Benefits for estate agents and conveyancers

Early engineer input is not only for sellers. For estate agents, a clear structural opinion helps answer buyer questions with confidence rather than leaving a defect to be discovered and feared later. For conveyancers, an engineer's view can help where structural calculations or evidence of past alterations are missing, narrowing the uncertainty to something that can actually be progressed. In both cases the goal is the same: fewer late surprises, fewer stalled transactions and a clearer path to completion. EMA can act as a referral partner, providing rapid inspections and engineer letters where a sale is at risk.

EMA Pre-Sale Structural Review

EMA Structures offers an engineer-led pre-sale structural review for sellers, estate agents and conveyancers across London. It includes a site visit, a visual structural inspection, a review of visible concerns and previous alterations where accessible, an engineer's opinion and a short written summary with recommendations for any next steps. Where the review confirms a defect, we can advise on further investigation, retrospective structural calculations or an engineering-led repair strategy. Where it would help, the report can also include an indicative guide to likely repair costs, so a seller can weigh the risk of a price reduction before going to market and a buyer can factor any work into their offer. The same engineer's report is often useful for a remortgage or mortgage retention, where a lender asks for a structural opinion. Final recommendations and any cost guidance always depend on what is found on site.