OFT releases home buying and selling market study report

The Office of Fair Trading has published the report of its home buying and selling market study. It recommends tackling the current lack of price competition, in a market dominated by traditional state agents, by promoting new business models, and encouraging consumers to negotiate on commissions.
It did not recommend any changes to the home information pack regime.

It also found that existing legislation as it applies to traditional estate agents is comprehensive and wide ranging, and that further regulation is unnecessary; instead, the focus should be on improving the enforcement of current rules to guard against serious breaches.

The only area where the OFT recommends the government should consider additional rules is around fees received by estate agents for referring buyers to providers of ancillary services such as mortgage advice, surveys, and conveyancing. The OFT believes this could cause an estate agent to favour one buyer over another, to the seller's disadvantage.

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