New workforce data revealing that half of the UK's practising surveyors are expected to retire within the next decade has exposed a fundamental weakness in the government's ambitions to overhaul the home-buying and selling process. Surveys sit at the heart of every residential transaction, from mortgage valuations to structural assessments, yet the profession is ageing faster than it is being replenished. For an industry already notorious for delays, the prospect of a shrinking pool of qualified surveyors threatens to undermine reforms designed to cut the average transaction time, which currently stands at around 19 weeks from offer to completion.