How do we fix the housing crisis? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series, in which our writers share their experiences of the UK’s dysfunctional housing system and examine how we can fix it.
The cruel bargain of only being able to buy a house when a loved-one diesThe biggest lie I was told about owning my own homeThe UK’s new rental scandal that no one is talking aboutThe ‘spinster’ housing crisis can no longer be ignoredThere’s nothing attractive about being a landlord anymore
It’s hard to trust someone when they’re trying to sell you something. When they’re trying to persuade you to spend several multiples of your annual salary on something you’ve only seen for about 10 minutes, it’s even harder.
So it’s not much of a surprise that estate agents are among the UK’s least trusted professions. According to the 2025 Ipsos Veracity Index, only 32 per cent of us “generally trust them to tell the truth”, compared to scores of over 80 per cent for nurses, doctors, teachers or engineers (though they beat journalists, who got 26 per cent).
Still, the profession doesn’t make it easy for themselves, especially now that they have a whole array of new AI-enhanced tools at their disposal. Generative AI might only have been mainstream for a few years, but estate agencies have been enthusiastic early adopters, often to the frustration of would-be buyers and sellers.
