Mystery surrounds a new – and free – UK property portal called Hus.co.uk, apparently based in Paphos, Cyprus, which is appealing for agents to sign up for a trial.

It wants 100 to help trial its beta site. It says it will then proceed to phase two, with around 1,000 agents, and then open to all UK agents.

It is first launching sales, then lettings and finally overseas.

The first most agents will have known about it was an email popping into their inboxes on Friday titled: “Blue and green, purple or RED?”

The message said: “A free property portal for real estate professionals.

“Our aim is a simple one – to make Hus.co.uk the largest property portal by listings in the UK. With your help we can provide the public with a single one-stop-shop where they can find all the UK’s properties for sale.”

On the site itself, Hus says it looks forward “to working with all UK estate agents to provide a beautiful and free of charge property portal to display your properties”.

With a reference to Rightmove’s current “find your happy” campaign, it goes on: “By being free we will be the one portal where all estate agents can list and where the public can find all the UK’s properties under one red roof.

“We are sure that large and small estate agents from all over the UK will find their happy with Hus.co.uk”

The site says it will not take private listings, but will accept them from online agents.

It says it guarantees that it will never ask agents for listing fees, but adds: “We will however offer optional paid services like premium listings, featured property slots, microsites and email campaigns. On-site advertising will also provide a reliable revenue stream. These paid services will be competitively priced for those agents who wish to purchase additional advertising.”

It also says it will keep costs down by avoiding “unnecessary London bus ads”.

Promising a state of the art portal, plus mobile aps, Hus seems unperturbed by the impending launch of OnTheMarket.

It says: “We understand why estate agents want to better control their costs, but we believe in free market economics.

“Estate agents should be free to advertise wherever they like. Restrictive practices designed to make a concept viable are never a good idea.

“The requirement of Agents Mutual to remove agents’ listings from other property portals makes the need for a free comprehensive site, like Hus, even greater.”

There are no contact details on the site, with contact only possible by filling in online forms. Eye filled in a form on Friday morning giving details as to who we were and asking for further information, in particular who is behind the site.

However, we have yet to be contacted.

An attempt to register and send that form results in a security warning message, that “the information you have entered is to be sent over an unencrypted connection and could easily be read by a third party”.

The address given on the last line of the main email footer is: Shop 11, Byzantium Gardens, 8046, Paphos, Cyprus.

https://hus.co.uk/