If an agent is advertising a property, then the default price at which the property is advertised, should be the actual selling price agreed with the vendor. If the property is available at a reduced price - dependent on circumstances such as buyer’s age and method of purchase, then this would need to be made clear in the particulars.
A transactional decision made by a consumer would include clicking through to a property’s details page following an internet search, listing properties and prices. That means the price indicated should be the actual listed selling price for the property, to avoid the risk of consumers being misled as to the price they might pay.
The actual selling price of the property should be given as the headline price. Any reduced price, which is dependent on purchasing the property via a leasehold scheme, may also be indicated, but the purchase criteria must be made clear next to the reduced price. For example:
‘£310,000 or £249,000 with typical lifetime lease’.
There should be clear information at the beginning of the property details explaining how the reduced price is determined, what individual criteria are required to achieve it and what conditions apply.
If the property is only offered on a reduced lifetime price, the typical price can appear as the headline price, but the headline description should state ‘for lifetime lease’.
The typical price should be an average price and not the lowest achievable. There should be a clear explanation of what criteria determined how the price would be achieved.
