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# Government's Own Research Says Reservation Agreements Need Upfront Information First
- URL: https://www.logbook.co.uk/reservation-agreements-research-upfront-information-2026/
- Published: 2026-10-12T09:32:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T09:32:15.000Z
- Description: Kantar's shelved reservation agreements study, published 8 September 2026, found buyers will not commit without key property information. Why that drives the roadmap's sales-packs-first order.
- Author: Jamie Dawson
- Tags: Property Logbooks, News & Updates

On 8 September 2026 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a 51-page research report it had held for two years. "Reservation agreements: informing the design of an effective offer", written by Kantar Public for the previous government, tested whether buyers and sellers would sign a binding commitment at the point of offer. They would not, unless given key information about the property first. The planned field trial was abandoned as unworkable. That finding is the evidence behind the June 2026 roadmap's decision to embed [sales packs](https://www.logbook.co.uk/property-sales-pack-uk/) before [binding conditional contracts](https://www.logbook.co.uk/binding-conditional-contracts-home-buying-uk/).

## What the research was, and when it was done

The cover carries a disclaimer: commissioned by a previous administration, published for transparency. The copyright notice is dated 2024 and names the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The fieldwork is older still.

Stage one ran in 2019: 12 scoping interviews with conveyancers, estate agents, escrow providers, consumer representatives and commercial reservation agreement providers, then six reconvened consumer workshops in August and September 2019\. Each group of six met twice, about three weeks apart, in London, Birmingham and Leeds. All 36 participants had bought or sold within the previous year, split between first-time and experienced movers and between chain and no-chain sales.

Stage two was to be a field trial comparing estate agency branches using reservation agreements with a control group. Covid intervened. In October and November 2021 Kantar ran a feasibility study with 19 industry stakeholders, including 11 estate agents, Law Society representatives, the escrow provider Transpact and several existing providers. The trial never proceeded. The research applies to England and is qualitative: it reports what a small, structured sample thought, not what share of the public agrees.

## What buyers and sellers said

Participants welcomed government action on failed transactions and broadly supported the concept when first shown it. The appeal collapsed on timing. The report records that participants felt it was "unrealistic to ask buyers to make a commitment in the absence of key information". At offer there was too little information to commit to; at exchange, commitment already existed. They could not see where the agreement would sit.

One experienced London buyer in a chain put it this way: "This is asking us to commit to something before we know what we're committing to."

Kantar went back to industry and redesigned the offer. The second workshop paired the agreement with a "Reservation Disclosure": a one-page declaration in which the seller states tenure, lease length, ground rent, service charges, utilities, parking, restrictions, planning and building regulation consents, disputes, flooding, radon, mining, Japanese knotweed and known structural problems, and both parties state whether they are in a chain and, for the buyer, whether a mortgage is approved in principle.

That changed the reception. The report describes the disclosure as "changing the underlying nature of the Reservation Agreement", giving buyers a basis for committing at offer. Participants thought it would weed out speculative offers and bring forward information currently supplied late and piecemeal. Experienced movers liked it most; first-time buyers worried it was one more thing to pay for and wanted it optional. The 2019 disclosure form reads like a cut-down version of the sales pack contents the roadmap now lists in Annex B. Much of it is already required on listings; see our [material information guide](https://www.logbook.co.uk/material-information-property-listings-parts-abc-uk/).

## The design that emerged

Consumers were shown three deposit models: a flat £1,000 each, 1% of the price, or an agreed sum. They chose the flat £1,000\. A percentage felt fairer, but even 1% was judged too small to stop someone walking away for a much better offer, so participants preferred the cheaper option that still signalled seriousness. They wanted an independent third party, ideally government, to hold the money, and were hostile to anything that looked profit-making. Fees had to be nominal.

| Feature            | Design Kantar took forward to industry                                                                      |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Commitment device  | £1,000 from each party, paid by bank transfer to an escrow provider                                         |
| Scheme fee         | Minimal, with £20 given as an example                                                                       |
| Disclosure         | Seller declares key property facts; both declare chain status; buyer declares funding                       |
| Penalty            | Party at fault, or found to have given false information, forfeits the whole pot to the other               |
| Disputes           | Each side pays an arbitration fee and supplies documents to the escrow provider; the winner is refunded     |
| Exclusions         | Chain collapses beyond the immediate parties; survey reveals a problem above a pre-set cost threshold       |
| Time limit         | Fixed term, extendable by agreement, so nobody is locked in indefinitely                                    |
| Good-faith actions | Seller withdraws from the market; buyer stops looking and starts searches within two weeks. Not enforceable |

## Gazumping: what the report actually says

Reservation agreements are often sold as the answer to gazumping. Kantar's participants did not believe that. The report records that consumers "did not see Reservation Agreements as a credible means to prevent gazumping or gazundering", because any affordable deposit is smaller than the gain from a better offer. A seller can forfeit £1,000 and still come out ahead. Industry agreed: a flat £1,000 "would be unlikely to be sufficient to deter bad behaviour".

What the agreement could do was act as a commitment device that "introduces friction to either party changing their mind without cause". That is the more modest claim the roadmap's binding conditional contracts are built on: penalties for walking away without a listed reason, not a guarantee the sale completes.

## Why the field trial never happened

By late 2021 the team concluded no trial would produce robust evidence. A deposit-based agreement needed conveyancers on both sides to accept an unfamiliar document rather than advise against it or charge for reviewing it, and buyers and sellers choose lawyers from anywhere in the country. Agents are rewarded on sales agreed, not completed, so had little reason to push a product that adds friction at offer. Existing providers had built training, support and platforms around their offers that a government trial could not replicate, so a failed trial might simply discredit the idea. A commitment-only version with no money attached avoided the legal problems, but most agents thought it would be ignored as one more form.

Agents also said a voluntary agreement on one link of a chain is only as good as the rest of the chain, so any scheme would need to be mandatory. Many preferred a different reform: searches and a seller-commissioned survey before offer, with Scotland's Home Report cited as the model, and worthwhile whether or not reservation agreements followed.

## How this supports the roadmap's sequencing

The [home buying and selling reform roadmap](https://www.logbook.co.uk/uk-home-buying-selling-reform-2026-property-logbook-sales-pack/), published 19 June 2026, puts information first and commitment second. Chapter 7 says government intends to legislate for binding conditional contracts when parliamentary time allows, but the requirement would not take effect until sales packs are embedded. The penalty structure is to be worked out with industry from 2027\. Awareness-raising for voluntary reservation agreements starts later in 2026, with priority given to transactions where comprehensive upfront information already exists.

| Phase                | What the roadmap says happens                                                                                                            | Status as of 12 October 2026                   |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| 2026                 | Identify sales pack information that can be provided voluntarily; promote voluntary reservation agreements where full information exists | Voluntary information list not found on GOV.UK |
| 2027 to 2028         | Define the penalty structure; consult on sales information legislation                                                                   | Not started                                    |
| By end of Parliament | Require sales packs before listing; require binding conditional contracts once packs are embedded                                        | No Bill introduced                             |

Read the report alongside that table and the logic is plain. Government has evidence from its own research that buyers will not commit blind, that information provision is "integral to the process", and that a voluntary scheme in a chain-based market struggles without compulsion. The response is to build the information layer first and legislate for commitment afterwards. We track each milestone on the [reform timeline](https://www.logbook.co.uk/uk-property-logbook-reform-timeline/).

## What a reservation agreement looks like today

There is no national standard form as of 12 October 2026\. Reservation agreements are private contracts offered by a few commercial providers, by some developers on new-build sales, and occasionally drafted bespoke on high-value deals. The report notes that none of the providers it spoke to had achieved significant market penetration. Terms vary on every row of the table above: the deposit or contractual liability, who holds it, what counts as an allowable exit, who decides fault and whether there is a time limit.

Anyone offered one should have a conveyancer read it first and ask the questions Kantar's participants asked: what happens if the chain fails above or below us, what if the survey or searches find something serious, who decides fault, and what does a dispute cost.

## What is still undesigned

The roadmap leaves open everything the report flagged as unresolved in 2021\. Nobody has set the penalty level, or whether it is a flat sum or a percentage of price. Exceptions for death, illness, major financial change, newly discovered defects and chain collapse are examples, not drafted clauses. There is no dispute body, no decision on who holds a deposit, no rule on how a seller-provided [condition report](https://www.logbook.co.uk/property-condition-report-sales-pack-uk/) interacts with an exception for newly discovered information, and no territorial decision beyond an expectation that Scotland is excluded. Anyone claiming to know the statutory penalty is guessing.

### Records you must keep

- ✓The signed agreement, dated, with every schedule and the provider's terms as they stood on the day you signed
- ✓The disclosure or information form each side completed; in Kantar's model, liability for incorrect statements was capped at the deposit and tied to that form
- ✓Proof of the deposit payment and the name and reference of the escrow or deposit holder
- ✓The agreed exchange deadline and any written extension
- ✓Survey, search and mortgage valuation reports with dates, the usual triggers for a penalty-free exit
- ✓Any withdrawal notice, the reason given, and the dates sent and received
- ✓Correspondence confirming a collapse elsewhere in the chain
- ✓Your conveyancer's advice before you signed

A seller assembling this is building the first half of a sales pack. Our [conveyancing documents checklist](https://www.logbook.co.uk/conveyancing-documents-checklist-selling-home-uk/) covers the rest.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is this new research?

No. Fieldwork dates from 2019 and 2021 and the document is marked Crown copyright 2024\. MHCLG published it on 8 September 2026 for transparency, noting it was commissioned by a previous administration.

### Did the government test reservation agreements in real sales?

No. The field trial was dropped after a feasibility study found it could not produce robust evidence. The findings come from workshops with 36 consumers and interviews with 19 industry stakeholders.

### Would a reservation agreement have stopped me being gazumped?

Not according to this research. Participants and industry agreed an affordable deposit is too small to outweigh a materially higher offer. The value is friction against withdrawing without cause.

### Are reservation agreements mandatory now?

No. As of 12 October 2026 they are voluntary private contracts. The roadmap says government will encourage them where comprehensive upfront information exists, and will legislate for binding conditional contracts only after sales packs are embedded.

### How does this relate to Home Information Packs?

Estate agents in the 2021 interviews volunteered support for HIP-style upfront information and seller-commissioned surveys. The roadmap's sales pack descends from that idea; see [logbooks versus HIPs](https://www.logbook.co.uk/property-logbooks-vs-home-information-packs-hips/).

### Primary sources

[**MHCLG**Reservation agreements: informing the design of an effective offer (publication page), 8 September 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reservation-agreements-informing-the-design-of-an-effective-offer?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Kantar Public for DLUHC**Reservation Agreements: Informing the design of an effective offer (PDF, 51 pages), Crown copyright 2024](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a842f418d785493a9c8972f/Reservation%5Fagreements%5Freport.pdf?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**MHCLG**Home buying and selling reform roadmap, Chapter 7 and Annex B, 19 June 2026](https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform/outcome/home-buying-and-selling-reform-roadmap?ref=logbook.co.uk) [**Today's Conveyancer**Lessons learnt: historic report questions value of reservation agreements without up-front information, 9 September 2026](https://todaysconveyancer.co.uk/lessons-learnt-historic-report-questions-value-of-reservation-agreements-without-up-front-information/?ref=logbook.co.uk)