Who says that estate agents are among the least-trusted professionals in the UK?

According to the new Ipsos Veracity Index, trust in estate agents is improving, helping to ensure a positive relationship between home sellers and their agent.

The latest index reveals that trust in estate agents is at a record level since they were included in the index ten years ago.

Professors, priests, the average person, and… estate agents are the biggest winners from an upswing in public trust

Politicians and ministers remain stranded at the bottom of the Ipsos Veracity Index, despite rising public trust in a range of professions

The 27^th edition of the Ipsos Veracity Index records a broad improvement in public trust across a wide range of professions, partially erasing declines that had been recorded over the past few years.

Several professions have reached or equalled their highest levels of public trust this year: 49% of the British public say they trust Trade Union Officials to tell the truth, the highest level of trust since 1983 (matching their 2022 score of 48%) and a 31-point increase over that period.

Trust in Business Leaders (36%) is also at its equal-highest level since 1983, matching the level recorded in 2017. Trust in Bankers has risen to 44%, the joint-highest score for this profession (equalling 2020) since it was first introduced to the Index in 2011.

Similarly, the level of trust in Estate agents is at its highest level since they were first included in 2014 (37%, up 9 ppts this year).

Nurses continue as the country’s most trusted profession, with 94% of Britons saying they trust them to tell the truth, a six-point increase from last year. Engineers are second on 90% (+5ppt), with Doctors in third (88%, up three points). Professors and Teachers are joint fifth, on 85% apiece (an increase of nine and seven points since 2023 respectively).

Politicians remain Britain’s least trusted profession. Just 11% trust them to tell the truth, scarcely higher than the 40-year low of 9% recorded last year. Government ministers are second-bottom, on 15% – although this is a five-point improvement on their position last year.

Advertising executives are the third least-trusted profession with just 18% saying they trust them to tell the truth, and unlike most other professions they have not registered any increase in the proportion who trust them since 2023. The other professions in the bottom five are Journalists on 27% (despite a 6-point increase in trust since last year) and private residential landlords (35%, up just one point).