The European Commission has published a study by independent consultants on the EU markets for legal services associated with house and land sales (conveyancing services). The study finds that consumers have greater choice and are on average paying less for conveyancing services under deregulated systems, with no loss in quality. The market for conveyancing services is worth about €17 billion per annum; efficiency savings of even a few percent following deregulation would therefore save consumers millions of euros each year. The Commission is calling on Member States to look at the findings and to review and update national laws which limit competition and the free circulation of services throughout the Single Market instead of serving the interests of consumers.

The study led by ZERP at Bremen University carried out an analysis of the effects of professional regulation on the efficiency and performance of the conveyancing services market. Conveyancing services comprise, for example, pre-contract searches, transfer deed drafting, signature certification and deed registration in the Land Registry. This market is of direct interest to consumers and of high overall economic significance. It is estimated that property turnover in the EU27 for 2005 was almost €1,800 billion (16% of EU27 GDP) with the corresponding turnover in conveyancing services being around €16.7 billion. Measures to open up this market will therefore directly contribute to the Lisbon objectives of growth and jobs.

The legal part of the study assesses the justifications for restrictive professional regulation in this market. The study comes to the conclusion that, when put to the test, most of the arguments put forward do not seem to justify restrictions of the sort that feature in highly regulated systems.

The economic part examines empirically how professional regulation affects the market for conveyancing services by measuring the degree of regulation, the quality of services in a broad sense (using the results of a user survey) and level of fees. It examines the interplay between these using different classical econometric methods. This concludes that high levels of regulation generally go hand in hand with high prices whilst not resulting in higher levels of quality.

More information
The Commission will now present the study to Member States, highlighting its results and asking for their reactions while encouraging them, when necessary, to consider appropriate reforms.
A full report of the study is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/sectors/professional_services/studies/studies.html and http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/whatsnew_en.htm