Breaking Property News 18/12/25
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“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio” UK Estate Agents to go Danish style
Government suggests professionalising property agents by adopting the Danish protocol
Extract from the Open consultation Government Home Buying and Selling reform consultation – closing date 29th December
‘Estate agents play a pivotal role in the home buying and selling process and many provide an excellent service. However, too many are failing consumers. Compared to other property professionals and international norms, the sector is lightly regulated. This contributes to low public trust scores with only 37% of people expressing trust in the profession (November 2024 Ipsos MORI Veracity Index).
Low trust, a lack of qualifications, and the absence of minimum professional standards increase the industry’s burdens, creating additional legal and administrative work for conveyancers.
We propose introducing a Code of Practice setting out the minimum standards expected of all residential property agents, including estate, letting, and managing agents. We will explore the most effective delivery options for maximising the impact of the Code but expect that National Trading Standards, the redress schemes, professional bodies and the courts would use it to drive up standards.
On 4 July 2025 the government consulted on the introduction of mandatory minimum qualifications for managing agents of leasehold, commonhold, and share of freehold properties and estate managers of freehold estates. This consultation closed on 26 September, and we are analysing responses.
The consultation set out a preferred option to deliver qualifications through government appointing designated professional bodies to implement the qualification requirements, supported by local authority enforcement. We propose extending this model to estate and lettings agents and as a first step could consult on mandatory qualifications for these sectors. Trade-offs, including potential impacts on consumers and agents (for example, costs), will be carefully assessed.
Subject to consultation outcomes, we propose to legislate for mandatory qualifications when a suitable legislative vehicle is available and consider legislation to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice. Alongside this, we would improve consumer education so the public understands agent’s roles and knows where to turn if things go wrong.
We will also work with the Competition and Markets Authority to ensure their new powers under the Digital Markets Consumers and Competition Act (2024) support high standards in this sector. Further interventions would remain under consideration if needed to raise standards.
Case studies: estate agency in Denmark
In Denmark, estate agents must be approved and registered by the Danish Business Authority (Erhvervsstyrelsen). To join the register, they must have formal qualifications and be able to demonstrate professional competence.
Estate agents are responsible for preparing a sales report, building survey, electricity survey and energy report for each property they are selling.’
(“Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio” – Hamlet the Danish Prince – Shakespeare)
Unless you want to go all Danish, have your say please and take time to write in to the government and ensure we do not have even more red-tape and regulation which just adds cost and is great little earner for some positioned organisations, without delivering tangible results for the public.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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