Archive

The Competitions and Markets Authority is to probe the proposed merger of two crowdfunding sites used by numerous property industry companies. Crowdcube...

New guidance spells out how leniency can be exercised on agencies or individuals who inform on anti-competition cartels of the kind that...

NAEA Propertymark has thrown its weight behind a Competitions and Markets Authority investigation into whether consumer protection law has been broken...

One of the victims of a notorious estate agency price fixing cartel has spoken out against one of the offenders.  Christina Davis...

Property raffles are a legal minefield and many are too good to be true, according to a leading lawyer. There has been...

House raffles and similar competitions have become mired in controversy in recent years, thanks to some of them failing to abide by...

Hunters has expanded its online offering to improve its service to both the sales and lettings sectors - and it’s even...

A trade body has reported some council search departments to the government for refusing to provide email details and forcing search...

The Competitions and Markets Authority has started court proceedings seeking the disqualification of two estate agency directors over a price fixing...

A long-standing legal dispute between OnTheMarket and the Gascogne Halman and Connells agencies has been settled. No details have been released but in...

Future complaints about property raffles by individual home owners seeking to avoid estate agency fees will in future be handled by...

A Connells’ agency brand arguably best known because of legal action by OnTheMarket is to open its 21st office. Cheshire property consultancy...

Countrywide has told Estate Agent Today that it will not be releasing any figures on the branch closure programme it introduced...

Another house price raffle has closed amid rancour, and with cash prizes being awarded instead of the property originally promoted. The latest...

Another property raffle - this time with what appeared to be a castle as its main prize - has hit trouble...

With next Friday being Easter, this is the last ADC for a fortnight - so it’s our chance to honour those...

Yet another property raffle has had to be abandoned because it has been deemed illegal under Gambling Commission rules. A Yorkshire couple,...

Every other advert on the TV is featuring Santa Claus, snowmen or reindeer, the tinsel, trees and decorations are out in...

OnTheMarket chief executive Ian Springett has told an agents’ conference of the strategy for his service - including a prediction that...

Raffles are in the news as a way of ‘selling’ homes, and not just because an Irish club has won a...

The Competition and Markets Authority is stepping up its campaign to identify and prosecute companies behind cartels - and it’s offering...

The Competitions and Markets Authority says the result of its latest probe into estate agencies’ possible infringement of the Competition Act...

The perils of property competitions and raffles have once again been demonstrated, this time with the Advertising Standards Authority upholding three...

One of the spate of property raffle competitions has been the subject of a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority. The complaint...

A disciplinary investigation by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has blown the lid on the infamous fee-fixing cartel scandal involving estate...

Cast your mind back to July 2008 – Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, the Euros were in full swing in Austria/Switzerland...

ZPG’s sell-off of the Australian arm of housing data company Hometrack to REA Group, a multinational digital firm specialising in portals and...

The Competition and Markets Authority, which is believed to be actively investigating estate agents’ alleged infringement of the Competitions Act, is...

It is thought likely that there will be no new update on the investigation into agents’ alleged infringement of the Competitions...

The Competitions and Markets Authority is investigating a suspect infringement of the Competition Act 1998 by estate agents. Few details have been...

The Advertising Standards Authority has told the organisers of a house raffle that they must not repeat a promotion because of...

The accounts for Agents’ Mutual, parent company of the OnTheMarket portal, show that revenue for the year ending January 31 was...

We take a break from the relentless election coverage to look at the great fundraising work being carried out by our industry. Once...

As we end an especially tragic week, it is heart-warming to remember how our industry - along with so many other...

ZPG has published its half-year figures this morning showing a six per cent rise in the number of agents and a...

An attempt to raffle a property - like the much-publicised case of an owner in south east London, which reached some...

The Competitions and Markets Authority has released more details of its ‘calling-in’ of the acquisition of Expert Agent by Zoopla Property...

The Competitions and Markets Authority is reviewing the acquisition of Expert Agent by ZPG, parent company of Zoopla and PrimeLocation. A statement...

A competition organised by Real Hot Property - which says it “aims to be Europe’s largest property portal” - has been...

A new regional property portal aiming to sign up 80 per cent of agencies in Yorkshire says it is unconcerned about...

This week sees the start of the Competition Appeal Tribunal court case between Agents’ Mutual Ltd and Gascoigne Halman Ltd. The case...

It’s a headline from an Australian business journal this week but it has a familiar ring to it: “Estate agents’ attempts...

A fine of £735,000 imposed on an association of estate and letting agents and a local newspaper publisher has been described...

A London agent says he has quit OnTheMarket and Agents’ Mutual as a result of the intervention of the Competitions and Markets...

One of the directors of Agents’ Mutual, parent body of portal OnTheMarket, has told Estate Agent Today that his firm does...

The Competitions and Markets Authority has sent two open letters - one to online publishers and one to marketeers - warning...

The raterAgent website is to use an automatic email generating service to encourage more reviews. raterAgent has teamed up with Reapit to...

The Competition and Markets Authority has updated its advice to all online review sites - including those for estate agencies and...

The year is already in full swing with some agents on holiday in the next few days - and deserving a...

It’s been another busy week for charitable good works from our industry. We ran this example of a particularly public-spirited agent earlier...

The Competition and Markets Authority says one of its priorities for 2016-17 is to pursue a project analysing the accuracy and...

The Competitions and Markets Authority - which earlier this year fined an estate agency trade group £735,000 - has set out...

The Bank Holiday weekend heralds the end of August and the return to a more normal sales and lettings market for...

The estate agency industry is “in the sights of” the Competitions and Markets Authority according to a competition lawyer. “All the evidence...

The Competition and Markets Authority is reported to have received two complaints about a property centre, accusing it of breaking anti-competition...

OK, you’ve had your fun. Now let’s leave the regulators regulate and work for the public. If you don’t know what I...