When someone buys or sells property, one of the elements they have to go through is a land search from the records held by a local council. The speed this is done by is changing dramatically.

Although the housing market is seeing a slow-down, the use of electronic systems to speed-up the purchasing process is accelerating. The work undertaken by local authorities in producing ‘searches’ for conveyance solicitors takes advantage of NLIS (National Land Information Service). It reduces the process from weeks to days.

The fastest recorded local authority search through NLIS took 9 minutes; from the solicitor requesting to receiving the local authority search response on their PC.

This week NLIS has announced the 5 millionth such search, since it started in February 2001, and over the past six months it has processed 200,000 requests a month nationally.

Cllr Ian Swithenbank, Chairman of local authority knowledge website, IDeA said, "NLIS goes from strength to strength. It is fantastic that the online-purchase-habit is being embraced by a growing number of coveyancing professionals across England and Wales. NLIS is one of the best examples of electronic government service delivery, becoming widely used by professionals for the benefit of the citizen; and its great to see councils in the forefront of this revolution."

Over 6,500 law firms now use NLIS, purchasing searches from one of three NLIS licensed internet-shops (NLIS Channels - SearchFlow, TM Property Service, MDA TransAction Online), which also sell other complementary conveyancing search products, giving a total choice of around 50 different searches products, which a solicitor can purchase using their office computer.

The 5 millionth search total includes searches purchased online, using NLIS, from 410 local authorities, the Land Registry, the Coal Authority and the Environment Agency.