FOLLOWING the announcement from the government regarding plans to changes the house buying process and estate agents qualifications.

Mark Readings, Founder & Managing Director of HouseNetwork, the UK’s first online estate agency, commented: "The decision from the government to revamp the estate agency and house buying and selling process is long overdue.

At House Network, we have been vocal whenever asked for input on this subject and in our opinion the initial headlines, whilst a positive step needs to go further.

"Qualified agents is a minimum requirement and we would like to see a full licensing system for agents and a charter of transparency introduced. Having been part of the National Association of Estate Agents and its rebrand to Propertymark since 2005, we have believed in the need for a 3rd party to ‘govern’ the industry and our fees have been published as fixed since our launch in 2004.

"The consumer has to be protected and hidden agendas give the sector a bad name. Many estate agents do perform a good service and we pride ourselves on our customer rapport, so this is hopefully the start of a new age for the industry. We agree that new initiatives to help avoid sales falling through will improve the process and whilst agents themselves can support this, to ensure the process protects all buyers and seller, we hope a strict and new procedure is implemented."