A property search engine which advises investors and other buyers on prices says it has found frequently re-listed properties in parts of London.

Propcision says that the re-listings “give rise to concerns that average asking prices on Battersea/Nine Elms are potentially being inflated and could possibly lead to a false impression of market activity in the area”.

Propcision says that it constantly compares and analyses housing data, including asking prices, price adjustments and length of time on the market.

“When we spot unexplained behaviour or activity in the market, we investigate in order to understand it. So, when Battersea Power Station and the Nine Elms area in SW8, Wandsworth, London, were seemingly very active, in general terms, against observed market trends for the area, we decided to look more closely at the data surrounding this activity.

“What we found was surprising. The data suggested a pattern whereby a property appeared to be listed for sale, removed, and then almost immediately relisted for sale on the property portal.”

Propcision said that it found one marketing agency had listed 35 new-build properties for sale in Battersea during a six to eight month period.

“However, on closer inspection of this data, there seems to be a pattern of listing, removing, and re-listing properties.

“The pattern occurs so frequently that it may have seemed as though there were 368 properties listed for sale instead of 35 during the same period.

“Instead of there being roughly £50m in market value of apartments advertised, it may have appeared in some statistics as over £500m in market value. This represents ten times the actual market value of the apartments that were listed for sale.”

In another example, it found a developer had listed 20 apartments for sale.

“The pattern of removing and re-listing seemed to have occurred so frequently that the consumer might have thought there were 96 apartments with a market value of £100m for sale in this short period.

“It may have therefore given the impression to consumers that apartments were literally flying off the shelves in this particular residential development as the listings appear to be removed a few days after being listed for sale. Since each property was re-listed under a new listing, it would have been extremely difficult for a consumer to spot readily.”

Propcision provided other examples, including at Islington.

It says it has tried to contact Mount Anvil, Residential London and Berkeley Homes for comment.

Propcision also lists a number of reasons why listing, removing and immediately re-listing a property is bad practice.

Reasons include misleading consumers into thinking that a property is new to the market; camouflaging any price adjustments; estate agents advertising achieved prices based on reduced prices, not the original asking prices; the skewing of house price indices and research; and sending a re-listed property to the top of ‘recently added properties’ on a property portal.

Propcision’s claims of ‘portal juggling’ have been highlighted in both the Financial Times and on Citywire.

The FT story quoted both Rightmove and Zoopla. Rightmove said it would address the issue with the companies spotted by Propcision, while Zoopla said that agents who repeatedly manipulate listings can be removed from the portal.

The FT also quoted Cornish agent Chris Wood, who cast doubt on whether the industry regulator, the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team, has the capacity to investigate so-called ‘property juggling’.

* Separately, EYE has been shown evidence suggesting that one online agent listed one property for 68 days between August and November last year. The same property popped up again on Rightmove for four days in February. It then reappeared again for two days on Rightmove between April 5 and April 6.