Our story yesterday on EYE about Rightmove’s valuation service which goes through to up to five firms, prompted a flurry of interest after an agent complained to the Competition and Markets Authority, alleging that it wasn’t clear to the public that these agents paid for the service – and that some weren’t local.
EYE used the link https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-valuation.html to see which local agents we might ask to value our own home (not that we’re thinking of selling, but it’s always handy to know).
Of five agents, two were indeed local. Of the others, one was eight miles away, and the other two were in another county – 12 and 16.5 miles respectively, according to Google.
One reader in another part of the country who independently tried the same exercise came up with four agents of whom one was about 50 metres away, another 12 miles away and a third just over 19 miles distant.
The fourth was Yopa, whose nearest Local Property Expert is based about 13 miles away.
Then it was suggested we try a Berwick-upon-Tweed postcode, TD15 1AB.
This came up with just three agents, of whom two were indeed in Berwick-upon-Tweed.
However the nearest office of the third is in Edinburgh, a distance of 56.9 miles according to Google Maps.
We think this may be a record, but . . .
So the 3 agents that came up for a postcode in Dumfries and Galloway (Scotland), one was in Carlisle (England) 67 miles away. The second was in Linlithgow 101 miles away and the third, an online agent who would seem to be around 30 miles away……
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Rightmove is a monopoly, and there is regulation against it. It’s a shame that the competition authorities do not address how Rightmove treats small agencies, how it decides its pricing, enforces its rules, etc etc.
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