


Can software help ease Britain’s housing crisis?
Some tech utopians think so
House-hunting is a favourite British pastime. The country’s three most popular property portals—which aggregate listings from 25,000 estate agencies—attract around 10m people each month. Actually buying and selling homes is a lot less fun. Conveyancing is still almost entirely paper-based; solicitors regard email as cutting-edge technology; many social landlords lack good digital records; and so on. That creates an opportunity for property-tech (“prop-tech”) entrepreneurs to improve the efficiency of the market.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Props to prop-tech”

Britain’s obsession with baked beans
Health trends and gourmet beans are driving demand for other varieties

The biography of a British recycling bag
Do you really have to wash yogurt pots before throwing them away?

Britain’s last imperialists
The core of the British state still believes it can lead by example
The story of one NHS operation
And what it says about how to improve the productivity of Britain’s health service
The Sue Gray saga casts doubt on Keir Starmer’s managerial chops
Faith in the prime minister’s technocratic credentials has been tested