Tesco Suspends Home Selling Site

Tesco has called a halt to its property sales website after it was deemed it was acting as an estate agent. The supermarket launched its private sale website, Tesco Property Market, this summer offering sellers the chance to advertise properties for a £199 fee.

However, after consulting with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) the firm was advised that it would be considered as an estate agent under current regulations and must therefore must adhere to the rules of the 1979 Estate Agency Act.

The retailer was not told to close its site, but decided to suspend advertising properties while it looked into relaunching the site as a fully-fledged estate agency service.

A spokesman for Tesco said the service had proved popular with sellers who were able to save thousands of pounds by not using an estate agent to market their property."We reluctantly have to suspend the private seller service launched earlier in the year," a statement said...We will however continue to use Tesco Property Market to provide advice and support to home movers."