Would you sell your house on Google?

Fancy adding a house alongside your bread and baked beans in your shopping basket? Tesco have announced plans – codenamed ‘Project Indigo’ to relaunch the failed property venture it tried to launch in 2007. The Office of Fair Trading has recommended that regulations that currently govern the UK property market should be relaxed, in order to create and encourage new platforms for selling and buying property .

Rumours have it from just £200, sellers will be able to list their property on the UK supermarket giants website Tesco.com – reaching a potentially engaged audience of millions of buyers looking to bypass the traditional estate agent process.

Critics have suggested the liberalisation of property sales governance will encourage a new breed of cowboys, indeed Peter Bolton King of the National Association of Estate Agents said: ‘It is disappointing that the OFT has not thought it appropriate to acknowledge [that] a robust and appropriate level of consumer protection is needed.’

Peter won’t be delighted to hear that Google are also looking at the potential of entering the UK market. With similar property services buoyant in countries such as the USA – Google have been quoted that they have been monitoring the regulatory situation in the UK. Buyers can current use Google maps to seek out and search for available property in the USA – incorporating street view and aerial maps in which potential buyers can assess the suitability of their potential new abode without leaving their armchair!

It will be interesting to see if the rules are relaxed and if so, would low cost online standalone providers be alluring to the average UK home seller. With growing concerns about privacy and security – the traditional estate agent route, which has the advantage of local knowledge and reputation, may still be the preferred option for the house hunting public – for now anyway.

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