Internet 'is allowing landlords to cut out agents'

The rise of the internet means that landlords can more easily buy and sell properties without using an agent, an industry expert has said.

Mark Davis, managing director of Tesco Property Market, explained that the internet meant that landlords could not only buy property directly from sellers, but also carry out research into the local areas to assess how attractive to tenants they would be.

He said: "There is so much that you can do over the internet today that you couldn't do a year ago.

"That's what we find with a lot of the hullabaloo that seems to be going on with a lot of estate agents at the present moment."

Mr Davis added that landlords who used the internet to buy and sell property also benefited financially - as they did not have to pay costs to agents.

"The average price of selling a house is round about £3,500 plus VAT," he pointed out. "There's no reason why people can't do it themselves."

Recently, Halifax suggested that more and more landlords would use the internet to search for new properties.

Colin Kemp, the managing director for Halifax Estate Agents, said at the time: "Finding a new property on the internet has certainly increased in popularity with the ease of searching from your own home."