Earlier this year, Westminster Council announced plans to ban estate agents from displaying sales boards outside residential properties, citing concerns over visual clutter and street aesthetics. Now, Epping Forest Council has become the latest local authority to follow suit, prompting renewed debate across the property industry about whether the traditional ‘for sale’ board is becoming outdated.
As councils tighten regulations and digital marketing continues to dominate, questions are being raised about the future role – and relevance – of one of the most recognisable symbols of the housing market.
“For decades, estate agents have used for-sale boards to attract potential buyers, but with more councils applying to ban such boards, it has led many estate agents to argue that this could have a detrimental impact on the industry,” said Jack Malnick, managing director at Sell House Fast.
Councils across the UK have applied to stop estate agents displaying sale boards, but what does the ban on sale signs mean for estate agents?
Malnick continued: “It has been suggested that in 2025, around 1.2 million properties were sold in the UK, marking a three-year high.
“Although the exact figures aren’t available, it would be fair to say that a large percentage of Brits looking to buy a property would head online to begin with, rather than driving around their desired location to look for estate agents’ boards outside of properties.”
Despite some local authorities imposing bans, in reality, it is unlikely the industry will see any noticeable changes, according to Malnick.
He added: “It’s fair to say that some estate agents may lose a small number of viewings, but the chances of this resulting in properties not selling or being on the market for prolonged periods are minimal.
“Sale boards are, more than anything, a marketing tool for estate agents to display how dominant they are in the local property market, so it’s understandable why agents are pushing back against local councils when they believe this could impact new business and property sales.”
Of course boards are important for marketing a home – on a high footfall area – I often get enquiries from people passing by and calling me up (phone number is on the board).
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When I worked for an agent with a truly significant market share, the boards were more about showing the owners living in this street or that road why we were their only logical choice to sell and get the best price.
We had one absolutely real photo of a street in Tottenham that had 7 boards in it. All were on properties that had individual owners that instructed us one by one for either sales or lettings.
Of course, we used that photo every week to advertise our services on the back page of the local rag.
Ahh! The good old days 🙂
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