A shake-up in how property is sold could help Brits get a better deal, a report from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has suggested.

Industry expert David Amstell, founder of property website Briffy.com, explained that new regulations to allow vendors to put their homes online themselves would “cut out the estate agent and all the nonsense that comes along with them”.

He pointed out that property prices go up because of the hype that agents create.

“If it wasn’t for agents, property prices would probably be a lot lower,” Mr Amstell said.

And, in reality, agents for the most part only do what vendors could do themselves – list their property online, he added.

The OFT report found that updating legislation to allow new entrants into the market could give buyers and sellers a better arrangement.

It highlighted weak competition between agents on fees and the correlation between rising house prices and higher charges.