Estate agents are boosting profits by strong-arming potential buyers into using in-house mortgage services, leaving customers thousands of pounds worse off, an investigation by Times Money has discovered.
Evidence has emerged that buyers are being pressured into taking additional services that earn agency staff commission payments. In one case, an agent from Barnard Marcus, part of the Connells estate agency group, which is part-owned by Skipton Building Society, told a buyer that her offer on a three-bedroom house in South London would be accepted only if she arranged her home loan through the in-house mortgage service.
Justin Moy