The Open Property Data Association (OPDA) has launched a survey across over 30 of its member firms to discover what buyers think should be done to improve homebuying in the UK.

The association said it wants to find out what homebuyers and sellers feel about the process and how they think it should be improved, with particular interest in their knowledge around digital property information and how comfortable they would be using and sharing data.

OPDA added that the results will form "vital evidence" for its campaign to transform and digitise the homebuying process.

The survey is targeted at aspiring homeowners and customers who have transacted on a property over the last two years.

According to Rightmove, much of the homebuying process still remains reliant on paper, duplication, multiple signatures and manual checks. Consequently, it is taking an average of 22 weeks for customers to reach completion on their home purchase.

By contrast, those using OPDA’s data standards for digital property packs have seen time reduced from mortgage offer and purchase accepted to exchange within 15 days.

As a result, the association is calling on the Government to deliver digitised property data at source. This includes information from the Land Registry, planning permissions, building safety and local searches.

Chair at OPDA, Maria Harris, said: "We’ve all heard examples of how bad the torturous and archaic homebuying experience is in this country. But we’re taking our research further by asking consumers not only what they think about the experience, but also how they feel it could be improved and about their attitudes to digital property information.

"We’d love the industry to share the survey link with their own customers to generate the biggest consumer voice possible."

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