Note: This advice is given by the CAP Executive about non-broadcast advertising. It does not constitute legal advice. It does not bind CAP, CAP advisory panels or the Advertising Standards Authority.
The estate agent market is a highly competitive one and it is common for ads to include claims such as “Market Leaders”, “Leading Estate Agent”, “No. 1 Estate Agent” or “Top Selling Agent”.
Marketers have occasionally based comparative sales claims on data obtained from the Land Registry. The ASA has considered Land Registry evidence that showed the total number of properties sold in any given postcode. The marketers calculated the number of those properties they had sold in that postcode. In practice, however, discrepancies have arisen because of difficulties in establishing specific postcodes for an area in which that marketer operates: estate agents do not tend to sell property exclusively within discrete postcodes. Even if the marketer did exclusively sell property in a discrete postcode the agent or agents being compared are unlikely to sell property exclusively in that same geographical territory. (Davis Tate Estate Agents, 22 March 2006; Romans Estate Agents Ltd, 11 February 2004).
Last modified : 02 August 2010