ROOF Blog

Google is in talks with British estate agents to launch an online property portal, which experts say could pose a serious threat to existing property websites and local newspapers.

The US internet search company launched a property portal in Australia last August through which estate agents list properties for free, showing both pictures taken from its Street View service and details on a map.

Estate agents and property websites expect Google to launch a similar portal in the UK in early 2010, attracting substantial advertising revenue.

Ed Mead at Douglas & Gordon’s, the estate agency, said it had spoken to Google about the plans:

‘It looks very simple. If it stays free, then Google has a massive winner on its hands as it will get the backing from estate agents currently paying for rival sites.’

The Conservative Party would scrap home information packs (HIPs) ‘in a matter of weeks’ after coming to power, the Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps said yesterday.

The pledge follows claims by estate agents that the packs are impeding a housing market recovery, as potential sellers regard the typical cost of between £300 and £400 as another disincentive at a time when homeowners are already reluctant to move.

One of the reasons that property prices have risen since April is that the amount of stock on the market is low. Mr Shapps said: ‘House prices are rising because supply is restricted. HIPs have not helped.

‘The main priority is to scrap them. They are easy to suspend and there are emergency powers we can use to do so. This can happen very quickly. HIPs will be gone in a matter of weeks.’

Britain’s estate agents have reported the most widespread surge in house prices since the pre-crash days of late 2006, with cheap money and a shortage of properties creating boom conditions in parts of the country.

In its monthly snapshot of the market, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) recorded evidence of gazumping and sales of £5m homes, and predicted that the pick-up in selling prices would continue over the coming months.

Although sales of homes remain around half the levels seen before the crash, a separate report also out today from the British Retail Consortium found that shops selling household goods and furniture were benefiting from a rising property market.

RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf said: ‘Although the supply of property is beginning to pick up, it is still insufficient to keep pace with the increase in demand, which points to further price gains in the near term.’

Estate agents reported that five house hunters were registered with them for every property they had on their books last month.

But the high level of demand is failing to translate into increased sales, with estate agents selling an average of 7.7 properties each, down from 8.5 in September.

The number of buyers also dipped slightly to 287, down from 294 in September. But it remains a significant increase on the 196 house hunters for the same month last year, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

The heightened demand is a result of fewer properties on the market, with estate agents reporting that the average number of properties available for sale per branch dropped from 62 in September to 57 in October.

Melanie Bien, of mortgage brokers Savills Private Finance, said: ‘Family homes are in particularly short supply and prices are being sustained because of the demand for each property that comes onto the market.

‘Until more properties become available and finance is more readily accessible to those with small deposits, the number of transactions will remain woefully low.’

A two-bedroom flat in County Durham has been labelled Britain’s cheapest flat after it was placed on the market for just £1000. Situated above a group of shops, the flat has an open-plan lounge and kitchen and is located in the heart of Catchgate, Stanley. But it has no water or electricity, rubble litters the floor, the walls have huge holes and the ceilings have crumbled leaving a corrugated iron roof to protect the rooms from wind and rain. The property was left to an unnamed woman in a divorce settlement, who realised it belonged to her after she began receiving council tax bills and other official letters. Estate agents are set to auction the first-floor flat, which they admit needs ‘refurbishing’.