A new property portal has launched, dealing exclusively in the selling, buying, renting and letting of former council houses.

It is offering agents exclusive postcode territories to use the portal’s branding, which it says will allow these agents to prove their expertise in this type of property. Costs start from £29 per month.

Ex-Council.com claims that former  council houses comprise one in ten homes in the UK, and that sales of the homes bring in over £460m of commission for estate agents every year.

Its figures claim that there are 2.7m ex-council properties in the UK – equating to more than one in ten homes in the country.

In Scotland the proportion is higher at 21%, with Northern Ireland and Wales coming in at 16% and 10% respectively.

It defines ex-council houses as any property bought from a council or housing association under the Right to Buy scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

Tracy Anderson, client relations manager of the site, said: “Former local authority homes have spent years being unloved and under-valued. But far from being the poor relation of the property market, ex-council housing is actually the Cinderella sector.

“The truth is that, far from being property’s poor relation, there’s lots of commission to be made here – simply because there are so many of them.

“However, until now there has been no single ‘go-to’ website which brings together all the agents specialising in dealing with these type of homes, each promoting their advantages to buyers and investors.”

She said the aim of the site is to provide one agent in each area with the marketing tools to prove their expertise in this undervalued sector, and boost their instruction rates – both for sales and lettings.

She said: “Imagine having exclusive access to leads from these sellers and landlords via a site that is already on page one of Google for these search terms – and, in some cases, at the very top.

“With unique marketing instruction packs and a significant national advertising campaign planned, if you’ve ever sold or let ex-council property you’re going to want to see what we have to offer – before your main competitor does.”

The company said its research has shown that Harlow in Essex (postcode districts CM17-CM20) is Britain’s ex-council house heartland, with 29% of saleable former local authority property in its stock. Crawley in West Sussex (postcode district RH10) has a total of 5,296 ex-council homes – the highest number in the country.

In terms of value, the top 20 postcode districts are all in London and the south-east, with Canary Wharf and Battersea occupying the first two places.

Anderson said: “For owners of this type of property, Ex-Council.com provides instant access to local agents who are specialists in selling former local authority stock and maximising their value.

“Such properties are attractive because they often have larger room sizes than other homes because they were built in the 1960s and 1970s, when land was less of a premium than it is today.

“Investors like them because they return high yields and they can sell for between 10% and 15% cheaper than other homes – which means that they are an affordable alternative for first-time buyers, and for some people their only way into a desirable area.

“As for estate agents, Ex-Council.com is the perfect opportunity to win more ex-council house instructions.”

Its commission figures for estate agents are based on 4.2% of ex-council houses selling in a single year, equal to 116,255 at an average fee of 1.3%.

Its commission figures for letting agents are based on 12%, or 332,159 ex-council homes, being let each year at 5% commission.

Sales commission is reckoned to be £33,568,773; total lettings commission is estimated at £134,524,395.