RICS: OFT Home Buying and Selling Market Study

Commenting, Gillian Charlesworth, RICS director of external affairs said: "We believe the study represents an important step towards the government recognising that improvements are long overdue in the estate agency sector, where currently completely unregulated or qualified agents can operate with little control. Responsible firms and professional bodies have already done a great deal of groundwork on the need for better regulation of this sector and we have already concluded that this is the only way to achieve effective protection for the home buying and selling public. We hope that the study will produce swift and clear conclusions that estate agents must be properly regulated.

"We are disappointed that the OFT has not taken the opportunity to address the related issue of lettings and letting agents, given that many estate agents also operate as letting agents from the same premises. We believe the government has missed an opportunity to look, from the consumer's perspective, at how the market provides property services."