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Online agents call for investigation into industry competition
The online estate agency firm Brightsale has called on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate the issue of competition within the UK estate agent industry. The move comes soon after the website reported that several of its customers had been hit by punitive and arbitrary fee increases from a leading high-street agent.
In addition to agents increasing their rates of commission for no apparent reason, Brightsale also claimed that one of the UK’s best-known firms urged traditional estate agents to work together to force their online competitors out of the market.
Emily Bellusci, Less2sell’s owner backs Brightsale’s and she states “We would urge all home sellers to insist that they are free to use an online agency, alongside a traditional one, without a threat of punitive commission hikes.
“We believe that competition crushing contracts are not in the best interests of consumers or the industry as a whole. We at Less2sell Online Estate Agent set our business up in the hope of restoring faith in Estate Agents. These traditional agents are keen on destroying that faith”
Earlier this month, Paul Smith, the chief executive of SpicerHaart used his column in Estate Agency News to call on traditional agents to stick together and consider “reverting to sole selling rights and include a clause which prevents the seller from using an internet property retailer at the same time.”
One Response to “Online agents call for investigation into industry competition”
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25/08/2007 at 02:29 pm
I’m glad to see that more and more non-traditional estate agents are alongside us in this campaign.
The only way estate agency will improve here in the UK will be through widespread united pressure and competition from non-traditional estate agents.
Our motives for the campaign are purely alturistic, and originate from our aim to improve estate agency on the whole for the consumer. Change is certainly long overdue.