Lots of people want nothing more in the world than to live in my house. Or so I could believe from the letters I have been getting lately from estate agents who pour out piteous tales of buyers pipped at the post in the chase for a property in my road. These communications assure me that if we wished to move, a previously disappointed purchaser would make us an offer — forthwith.

Relocation is not in our plans. But I am still interested in these specious missives, or “touting letters” as they are known. For they are proof of the variation in standards between estate agencies, a continuing scandal that is once more in the spotlight after the BBC One Whistleblower documentary, an exposé of the trade. The falsification of client signatures and backhanders were just some of the dishonest tactics allegedly used at a number of agencies, including Foxtons.

Touting letters may seem a negligible misdemeanour — lies of the trifling sort — compared with offences such as “simmering”, where the details of previous sales are changed to provide support for the pricing of an overvalued property. But touting letters do illustrate the casual disregard for truth that characterises some agents’ dealings. The purchasers desperately seeking a certain address exist only in the agents’ imaginations.

Yet people are taken in by these bogus expressions of interest and instruct the agency without checking its credentials. Some homeowners are, of course, influenced by greed. But others are unsuspecting dupes who will doubtless be subjected to further malpractice and misrepresentation by staff working on individual commissions, compelled by bosses to close deals — or else.

If you are wondering why agents seem suddenly to be writing more touting letters, the answer lies in the current shortage of properties for sale. The resurgence of the market has encouraged the creation of new agencies; the absence of any form of regulation, such as exams for staff, means that the set-up costs of these operations are minimal. These start-ups may, however, struggle to find places to sell. The touting letter is one way to attack the problem.

One reputable agent believes that this stratagem gives his business a bad name. But he acknowledges its appeal: “Say an agent spends £2,000 sending out 10,000 letters. Even if the mail-out produces just one £180,000 sale, that’s worth £2,700 at the usual 1.5 per cent commission rate.”

After the Whistleblower programme, there will once more be calls for the regulation of estate agents, forcing them to treat clients fairly. Why estate agency has for so long escaped such a system is a puzzle, especially in the light of the panoply of rules that cover every other individual involved in the housebuying process: the solicitor, the surveyor and the mortgage lender. The Office of Fair Trading — which seemingly cannot understand the need for regulation — has launched a code of practice this week for firms that are members of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA). The OEA hopes to sign up 65 per cent of estate agency offices by the end of the year; however, at present just 40 per cent belong to the body. Foxtons — whose activities were first exposed in The Times in 2003 — is not among them.

Those upstanding agents who long for regulation are beginning to despair that it will ever arrive. Some believe that the public does not want change because it takes an almost perverse delight in any confirmation of the view that agents are irremediable scoundrels. There may be something in this, but I am sure that the loveable rogue does not seem quite such a diamond geezer when you are the subject of the scam and want the proper redress that only regulation can bring.

• Aspiring first-time buyers do not read on, for the property market statistic of the week is a troubling one for your group. The average asking price for a London home is now £300,719, a record amount. This figure comes from Rightmove, a property website. At Propertyfinder, another website, the average asking price is only a little less at £298,000.

  There is also not much consolation to be had from the average selling price of £289,000. Based on this figure (for which the Land Registry is responsible), the first-time buyer who has contrived to save a 10 per cent deposit would still need a mortgage of £260,100. If you get a 4.99 per cent fixed-rate 25-year loan, this means repayments of £1,480 a month. As you pay a mortgage out of taxed income, you need to earn about £1,900 gross (before tax) to meet this commitment if you are a basic-rate taxpayer.

  However, an increasing number of first-time buyers are said to opting for 35-year loans. The repayments on a £260,100 loan of this type drop to a slightly more affordable £1,270. Will the next new thing be the 40-year mortgage?

  anne.ashworth@thetimes.co.uk

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