The HomeOwners Alliance, a powerful consumer voice in the property sector, has thrown its weight behind a campaign to expose the scale of conditional selling.
FT Adviser is campaigning against the apparently-widespread practice of estate agent pressuring buyers to use their in-house mortgage brokers, as a condition of having their offer considered or accepted.
FT Adviser says: “Over the next few months, FT Adviser is embarking on a letter-writing campaign to get constituency MPs raising the issue of conditional selling in Prime Minister’s Questions. We will be sharing a template letter that you can copy and tweak to send to your MP.
“There will also be a petition created to call on governments and regulators to ensure estate agents abide by stricter standards. We will be sharing the details of this soon.”
Now the HOA is on board with chief executive Paula Higgins telling FTA: “Our research shows that one in four buyers and sellers feel pressured into using estate agents’ in-house services – often being told they’ll lose the property if they don’t comply. This isn’t just unethical, it’s a clear conflict of interest that undermines consumer choice and inflates costs.
“Estate agents must not be allowed to strong-arm people into using their own mortgage brokers. Buying a home is stressful enough without added pressure tactics.
“We urge MPs to join FT Adviser’s campaign and push for real change to protect buyers and restore fairness to the homebuying process.”
Other bodies such as The Property Ombudsman and the Financial Conduct Authority have recently spoken out against the practice.
