Housing market is next on Tesco’s shopping list — February 26, 2010

It seems that supermarket giant Tesco is once again thinking about getting into the property market. Tesco made an ill-fated foray into the housing industry in 2008 when it attempted to set up an advertising site for properties available to buy or rent in the United Kingdom. That venture fell from grace pretty quickly as estate agents requested that properties on their books be deleted from the Tesco site in a nationwide effort to boycott the supermarket’s involvement.

However, Tesco has decided to give the housing market another go amid recent developments outlined by the Office of Fair Trading. The body has determined that estate agents have too much power in the housing industry and their domination is stifling competition, which in turn is preventing the general public from taking advantage of good value in the market.

The new rules mean that Tesco’s model would be likely to succeed and would not be subject to further estate agent boycotts.

Tesco currently accounts for a huge proportion of the money spent by the general public in their day to day lives. By adding property to its long list of operations, Tesco is likely to expand even further.