HM Land Registry continues digital transformation with blockchain

HM Land Registry has partnered with software company Methods with a view to exploring blockchain.

The non-ministerial government department for land ownership launched its ongoing research and development project, Digital Street, earlier this year. The project aims to explore how technology can improve and ultimately transform land registration.

"Digital Street and blockchain have the potential to synchronise and optimise the way all participants in the property market interact, from solicitors to banks, from surveyors to estate agents," said John Reynolds, Blockchain Digital's innovation and delivery director.

"Over the coming months, and in support of HM Land Registry's commitment to open data and open innovation, we will be announcing a programme of innovation and collaboration events that enable the property ecosystem to join the Digital Street Community."

Digital Street will work with the industry to understand how the innovative technology could revolutionise the land registration and buying and selling properties.

Methods, which is a software and web development company, will utilise R3's blockchain platform, Corda, for the second phase of HM Land Registry's Digital Street research and development project.

Methods will be supported by a team of global experts from R3, the blockchain enterprise firm, and Blockchain Digital's wider partner network. The organisations will bring a combined blockchain expertise to HM Land Registry, enabling Digital Street to fully explore the potential benefits of the new technology.

"Our ambition to become the world's leading land registry for speed, ease of use and an open approach to data requires HM Land Registry to be at the forefront of global innovation in land registration," said Graham Farrant, chief executive of HM Land Registry

"By working with Methods on Digital Street we are taking another step toward that goal, as we explore how new technologies like blockchain can help us to develop a faster, simpler and cheaper land registration process."