Estate agents under threat from online house sales

Up to half of all homes sold by 2010 will be sold online and do away with the need for traditional estate agent services.

This prediction comes from e-tail industry body IMRG and first4sale.com which are forecasting that 700,000 of the 1.4m homes sold in the UK each year will be flogged online in just four years time.

The prediction is based on research that shows that up to one million of those houses sold are first viewed online and that sellers will take familiarity with the web to the next level.

IMRG and first4sale.com claim that a growing number of people see the Internet as the key to avoiding paying thousands of pounds over to estate agents in commission fees.

Both groups are quick to point out that the recent BBC TV series Whistleblower, that unmasked unscrupulous practices by leading estate agencies, will only help drive people towards net-based property dealing.