The Return of The Estate Agency Board
The expiration of a 15-year ban on estate agency boards in conservation areas of Kensington and Chelsea has dismayed a number of local residents.
Estate agents in the area have said they are legitimately responding to the lapsing of the 1995 restrictions and had to act once one agent had targeted the streets in question or risk losing business to competitors.
Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council wanted to renew the ban but there had been disagreement over how extensive it should be. Last year, it applied to extend the ban to 80% of its area, but the Secretary of State refused permission. Other London boroughs, including Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden and Westminster, have also sought Regulation 7 controls.
Meanwhile the reappearance of boards in Kensington and Chelsea from the likes of Hamptons, Savills, Marsh & Parsons and Foxtons has prompted heritage and conservation groups to call for a blanket ban across the whole of central London.
Ian Dungavell, director of the Victorian Society, said the boards were “an anachronism” in the internet era.
Ed Mead, of Douglas & Gordon, said: “My view is very strongly that boards should be banned – period. I think they are a blight and they are just used to advertise the agency. Why on earth… should an agent be able to blight a street when everything is done on the web these days? A ban would get rid of much of the stigma attached to the estate agency industry.”
Rory James MacLaren-Jackson, CEO of national estate agency training provider Property Agency Training and Director of Bloomsbury Residential, disagrees.
“There is still a major role for the estate agency board and it remains an effective way of marketing both an available property and the agency it represents. Clearly, there should be and are local restrictions on the size and positioning of boards, but overall they are still an important part of the marketing mix when helping a client sell or let their property.”
