united-kingdom real-estate property
Can an estate agent legally incentivize someone to sell below market value?
<p>My neighbor is selling his house and the estate agent has listed it below market value, but in return is offering to pay the stamp duty and bill to refurbish the kitchen in the house he is moving to.</p>

<p>Are they legally allowed to do this under table arrangement?</p>

<p>I assume they are doing it with the intention of provoking some crash in the local housing market, which in return they can profit from.</p>

<p>An agent can advise the seller that for a quicker sale, a house should be listed at a lower price. If it is to the agent's advantage to make a quick sale, the agent can reduce the commission by whatever amount s/he chooses to help induce the seller to agree to a lower asking price. As long as this is done openly (to the seller) this should be legal. </p>

<p>In some jurisdictions the agent's actual commission must be listed in the closing documents. In those cases, such rebates would probably have to be listed. I don't know if this is true anywhere in the UK.</p>

<p>Note also that "market value" is not an absolute, objective figure. it is merely a prediction of what price a seller and buyer will agree to. For unique goods such as real estate, it is even more problematic than cases where many identical widgets are sold at a fixed price. No two houses or lots are quite identical in the qualities that make them of value to a buyer, so there is never a guarantee that a sale will be at a similar price to that of a "comparable" property.   </p>
