Home Buying and Selling Policy Advisor

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 2 weeks

Housing

Flexible

£41,890 - £45,649 per year

Job summary

Do you bring strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise your work? Have you got exceptional written and oral communication skills?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for a Home buying and selling policy advisor to join our team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!

Buying a home is for many people the most important purchase of their lives. However, the current process is long, complicated and frustrating. It takes close to 5 months on average to complete and around 1 in 3 transactions fail, costing buyers and sellers around £400m per year in wasted costs.

We are looking for a talented policy professional, who can help government address these issues, improving the lives of home movers and creating a better housing market. Government recently consulted on proposals to reform the process, with the aim of making moving, quicker, cheaper and more certain for customers and property professionals. We are committed to responding to this consultation this year.

This is an exciting and unique time to be joining the team, with government promising the biggest shake-up of homebuying in this country’s history. We are seeking to fill a role in the Home Ownership Division supporting the delivery of our reforms which are a Ministerial priority. You will be joining a high-performing team and be responsible for coordinating and project managing multiple teams developing home buying and selling policy.

You will play a vital role in ensuring our reforms are developed and delivered efficiently. Alongside this you will be responsible for leading the development of several core proposals to digitalise the home buying and selling system. This is an opportunity to lead on issues that make a real difference to people’s lives and which receive significant public and political interest.

The Home Buying and Selling Team is part of the Housing Markets and Strategy Directorate which is responsible for our overall housing strategy and market interventions that deliver that strategy. This includes responsibility for the Government's high priority commitment to deliver 1.5m homes in this Parliament, establishing the National Housing Bank, delivering a long-term housing strategy, housing supply, stewardship and diversification of the housing market, oversight of Homes England, and delivery of key programmes. We are a friendly and inclusive Directorate committed to allowing people of all backgrounds to thrive in their work.

Job description

As the Home buying and selling policy advisor:

You will have responsibility for coordinating and project managing the work of several teams developing policy for our home buying and selling reform roadmap due this year. You will play a vital role in driving this work forward and ensuring government delivers its commitments in this area at pace.
You will be responsible for designing and delivering several of our proposals to digitalise the home buying and selling system including supporting the use of digital ID in property transactions and reducing the need for buyers and sellers to onerously prove their identities multiple times to multiple professionals.
We are looking for someone who can build strong policy expertise on issues relating to home buying and selling both individually and within their team. This will involve drawing on research, evidence of home buying and selling in other jurisdictions and stakeholder feedback.
You will also manage MHCLG’s involvement in the Digital Property Market Steering Group. This is a key stakeholder forum which brings together partners from government and industry to support digitalisation of the property market. MHCLG took on responsibility for chairing this group in 2025.
You will work closely with HM Land Registry colleagues to shape the Group’s programme of work, plan DPMSG meetings and prepare the chair for Steering group meetings.
The successful candidate will need to undertake extensive stakeholder engagement to shape finalised proposals and to raise awareness of proposed changes, preparing industry for a significantly new way of working. This is an area that receives significant political interest.
The successful candidate will be expected to support Ministerial handling, providing written and spoken briefings and handle interest from other government departments. They will also need to respond to parliamentary interest, PQs and correspondence.

Person specification

Organising yourself and others, using project management techniques where needed, to drive a programme of work forward at pace, balancing multiple, competing priorities.
The ability to collaborate with, and bring together, multiple teams, organisations and individuals with conflicting interests to deliver common goals.
Thinking strategically to develop a long-term programme of work for your area, accounting for wider organisational objectives and the political context you are operating in.
The ability to draw on a wide range of evidence sources to solve complex policy problems and make decisions.
Strong written and spoken communication skills including the ability to explain complicated issues to non-experts and good judgement on how to adapt your tone for different audiences.
Ideally, experience of housing policy

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,890, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £12,135 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Learning and development tailored to your role
An environment with flexible working options
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Important: Your CV and Cover Letter must be merged into a single document before uploading.

Stage 1: Sift (CV & Cover Letter)

Experience: Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

Stage 2: Interview

Behaviours: Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace

Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 16th February 2026.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 2nd March 2026 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

Applying

Sifting

Interview

Interview Results & Feedback

Reserve List

Near Miss

Civil Service Grades

We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

Security Clearance Requirements

Civil Service Nationality Requirements

Right to Work

Artificial Intelligence

Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

CV Declaration

Sponsorships

Salary and Grade

Existing Civil Servants

Conflict of Interest

Location and Flexible Working

Fixed Term Contracts

Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

Appeals and Complaints

Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

London Office: + CTC

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£41,890 - £45,649 per year