Tesco moves into the estate agency business
Tesco has today announced a move into the online estate agency market in partnership with Spicerhaart. The new website, iSold.com, will be targeted at the online arena and is unlikely to impact upon Spicerhaart's traditional off-line marketplace. For an upfront fee of £299 and an additional £700 when the property is sold, homeowners will be up to take advantage of the ever-growing popularity of the online market.
This move comes just days after the Office of Fair Trading confirmed it was not looking to tighten regulations within the estate agency market with rumours that Google and other prominent Internet figures are looking at this area of business. There is no doubt there are big differences between the online market and the off-line market although the significant price differential is certain to have an impact on profit margins.
Those who follow the online property sector will be well aware this is not Tesco's first attempt at cracking this market with an earlier service in tandem with fish4homes.com proving short lived amid rumours of potential legal challenges. How this new move into the online property market performs is something which many other prominent Internet companies will be monitoring.
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