Novello Chartered Surveyors has joined the Open Property Data Association as the surveying firm prepares to launch an AI-powered platform designed to turn property inspections into structured digital data.
The business, founded in 2019 by James Brook and Jack Pye, carries out more than £10 million of surveys for home buyers each year and has grown to more than 70 staff, including over 40 surveyors operating across England and Wales.
Its membership of the OPDA will give Novello a role in discussions around the development of open property data standards, bringing the perspective of surveyors who work directly with buyers, estate agents, mortgage brokers and solicitors.
Novello has developed its own online referral platform connecting agents and brokers with its surveying teams and has invested in technology including drone-assisted inspections and digital data capture.
The group is also preparing to introduce an AI-powered reporting platform intended to replace conventional static survey PDFs with interactive reports. Its longer-term plans include an upfront information platform combining survey condition data with title information, seller forms, searches and data from Scout.
James Brook (pictured), chief executive of Novello, said: “Surveying has spent 30 years producing paper reports that arrive too late in the transaction to change anything. The Data Use and Access Act changes the rules. Condition data will have to be captured digitally at source and shared through trusted frameworks, and that is exactly the platform we are building.
“A surveyor will be able to walk the property with a camera and a microphone, and the platform does the rest.
“Joining OPDA puts us in the room where the standards are being set. We believe condition reports produced by qualified surveyors and delivered as open data at the start of a transaction are the missing piece in upfront information.
“We want to help define what that looks like and then deliver it at scale. What we bring to the association is the front line: 40 plus surveyors inspecting homes every day, a live platform turning those inspections into structured data, and direct relationships with the agents, brokers and consumers the standards are meant to serve.”
Novello said changes arising from the Data Use and Access Act would increase the use of digitally captured property information, while condition information is expected to form part of the material information provided when homes are listed.
The company believes making more information available earlier in a transaction could help buyers make better-informed offers and reduce the number of transactions that subsequently fall through.
OPDA brings together lenders, building societies, conveyancers, estate agents, technology businesses and other property professionals to develop and encourage the adoption of open data standards across the home-moving process.
Maria Harris, chair of the OPDA, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Novello Chartered Surveyors to OPDA. Novello brings something different to our membership – a surveying business that works directly with agents and consumers every day, and one that is already using smart data and AI to add real value to the survey process.
“That first-hand experience of the transaction will be hugely valuable as we continue to build open, trusted standards for the industry.”
