Television personality and property expert Sarah Beeny is launching a website to help people buy and sell their homes without the need for an estate agent

Television personality and property expert Sarah Beeny is launching a website to help people buy and sell their homes without the need for an estate agent

Beeny tells Business XL, ‘Especially in difficult times, when you may have to take less for your house than you’re comfortable with, there ought to be a way to sell without paying an estate agent.’

However, she insists that she does not expect the website, Tepilo, to put agents out of a job. ‘Absolutely there will always be a place for estate agents. If people have got the money to spare and they haven’t got the time to sell the house themselves, then great, use an agent.’

Beeny, the face of TV shows such as Property Ladder and founder of dating website MySingleFriend.com, is confident that there is demand for Tepilo’s offering despite the fact that house sales are barely a third of what they were at the height of the property boom two years ago.

‘Life goes on. People continue to buy and sell properties – perhaps not with the fervour they had in 2007, but maybe that is no bad thing because it was a slightly mad situation,’ she says.

Tepilo, which provides advice and negotiation tools for buyers and sellers, is a joint venture between Beeny and web design company Codegent. There are no immediate plans to monetise the site, says Beeny.