The most surprising thing about conveyancing is not the complexity, but the applause for doing the basics. In an industry handling life-changing transactions, I am still regularly told I'm “amazing” for replying to emails and returning phone calls. That should concern all of us far more than it flatters any individual solicitor.

I run a real estate practice focused on express property purchases for global investors buying off-plan in the UK, so I see this from a particularly sharp perspective. My clients are not casually browsing. They have already made a decision, committed substantial capital and want the legal process to move things forward quickly with clarity and purpose. Instead, many are met with slow responses, fragmented communication and an inertia that has somehow become normalised across large parts of the industry.

That low bar creates a strange dynamic. Ordinary professionalism gets mistaken for extraordinary service. One agent once gave me all of their business simply because I replied to an email within 30 minutes. Read that again. Not because of some dazzling legal innovation or a heroic rescue of a collapsing deal, but because I responded promptly. It was like all my competitors were responding by pigeon.

On one level, it's flattering. On another, it is a damning reflection of where expectations lie. When speed, responsiveness and basic communication are treated like rare luxuries, clients do not feel reassured. They feel abandoned, left to fend for themselves in the dark. In a sector built on trust, detail and timing, that should not be acceptable.

The problem isn't that conveyancing is easy and people are failing at something simple. Property law is layered, exacting and often slowed by factors outside any one lawyer’s control. But that makes communication more important, not less. When a matter is complex, clients need context. When a delay is unavoidable, they need transparency. Silence is what turns a manageable situation into a distressing one.

This matters even more in the world I work in, where many clients are overseas and already navigating an unfamiliar system. UK property transactions can feel painfully protracted, even to domestic buyers. For international investors, the process can feel almost designed to confuse. Endless admin, intrusive questions and long periods of uncertainty are not simply an inconvenience. They chip away at confidence and make clients wonder whether anybody is really in control.

That's why I have long believed the future of conveyancing isn’t really about legal accuracy; we should take that for granted. Conveyancing is about service. Buying a property should be as easy as ordering from Amazon, but with the care and attention of a five-star concierge. The legal work must still be rigorous, of course, but the client experience should feel coherent, responsive and human. Those are not competing goals. In the best firms, they reinforce each other.