A property portal that accepts private listings and also developers’ properties while banning estate agents, has claimed to have 10,000 listings.

The Mail on Sunday yesterday ran a story about iProperty, a portal which is backed by the NHBC and was set up by former Swinton Insurance boss Brian Blake with John Candia Massey.

Under the headline “Free website threatens estate agents with its 10,000 listings”, the Mail story says iProperty launched just three months ago.

Eye ran a story on its launch here in June. But while the NHBC-backed portal was launched on June 16, the venture behind it is not new.

Two years previously, a property app called TipC (short for The iProperty Company) launched, also banning agents.

The developers’ contribution to the portal’s UK listings looks important.

For example, yesterday we found seven homes being sold privately in London but 167 new-builds. In Birmingham, we found three homes for sale privately, and 34 new-builds.

In total, when we looked at the site yesterday afternoon, the site had 8,789 properties for sale in the UK, of which 65 are private listings and 8,718 are developers’ listings.

Developers, like private sellers, can list for free.

According to the Mail story, the site lists property in France, Turkey, Portugal, Switzerland, the US and Spain, but most homes are in the UK. We found just one private sale property in France, but 396 in Spain, of which almost all are private sales.

The site is available in seven languages including Russian and Spanish, and is said to be set to roll out next in South Africa, Canada and Australia.