Strategy — overview
The why, the what and the how, in one place. OPDA is a 5–7 year programme to make UK property transaction data interoperable, verifiable and consent-driven. This section explains the strategic frame and the live delivery plan.
Why OPDA exists
The UK homebuying-and-selling process is the most consequential transaction most consumers will ever undertake, and it is mediated by a fragmented set of industries that cannot exchange data interoperably. The same property information is re-entered manually by estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors, lenders and search providers, with different forms (BASPI, TA6, FME1, CON29 …) carrying different shapes of the same underlying facts. This costs the industry hundreds of millions per year, slows transactions by weeks, and produces avoidable consumer harm.
OPDA's hypothesis: if you publish a shared linked-data vocabulary for property transactions, plus a trust framework that lets participants verify provenance, the industry will move from manual re-entry to data exchange — unlocking efficiency, faster completions, and better consumer outcomes.
What gets delivered
JSON Schema + OpenAPI"]:::out TF["Trust Framework
governance + accreditation"]:::out L["Linked-data layer
SKOS · OWL · SHACL · JSON-LD"]:::out SBX["Sandbox
operational evidence"]:::out ACC["Conformance & certification
scheme"]:::out OPDA --> S OPDA --> TF OPDA --> L OPDA --> SBX OPDA --> ACC
How it sequences
Three programme phases — see Programme phases for detail:
- Sandbox (operational now). Controlled-environment validation of the technical, regulatory and governance choices.
- Live trust framework. Productionised version of the Sandbox, opened to accredited participants under regulatory wrapper.
- National rollout. Industry-wide adoption with conformance scheme and certification.
This mirrors the Open Banking sequence in the UK (2016–2019) — see the Strategic alignment page for why that precedent matters.
How success is measured
| Indicator | Today | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| OPDA member firms | 13 founding + ~20 association | ↑ — recruit surveying firm to close gap |
| Sandbox participants | Cohort 1 in flight (2026) | ↑ — onboard cohort 2 in H2 2026 |
| Schema downloads (npm) | ~thousands/month (estimate) | ↑ — leading indicator of industry uptake |
| Public videos / transcripts | 15 + 1 (~2.5 hours) | ↑ — explainer content for non-technical audiences |
| Government endorsements | DPMSG, DBT prize, MHCLG 12-week project | ↑ — increasing momentum across departments |
| Industry coverage (bounded contexts) | 5 of 6 (gap: Surveying) | ↑ — close gap by recruiting RICS-aligned firm |
Risks & constraints
- Surveying-gap — no founding member from surveying. PIQ overlay exists but no implementer.
- NTS withdrawal — material-information rules withdrawn in 2025; MHCLG successor consultation in flight but no published replacement yet.
nts.jsonschema overlay will need updating once MHCLG publishes. - FCA position — uncertain whether/how property Smart Data scheme will sit under FCA authorisation (as Open Banking did).
- Cross-jurisdiction — Scotland and Northern Ireland have different conveyancing law; current scope is England & Wales.
Sub-pages
- Project roadmap — cross-workstream live plan
- Programme phases — Sandbox → Live → Scale, with criteria for each transition
- UK Industrial Strategy — the policy backdrop