The downturn in the housing market has made estate agents less flexible about the rates, with many now sticking firm to the 2.5% ceiling.

During the boom, and even normal conditions in the housing market, sellers are able to shop around and barter with estate agents bringing their fees down to 0.5% - 1%.

Empathising with the estate agents it is fair enough, with fewer instructions it makes sense that they would try to charge more money for the instructions that they do get -- estate agents gotta eat too right.

But for sellers this is unacceptable. Millions of UK homeowners are currently in negative equity, and millions more are unable to market their property because they would not get enough for it to pay off the mortgage and buy the house they desire moving into.

For anyone on the borderline of either of those two situations, being able to knock a couple of grand off the estate agent's fee could make a big difference.

Of course the alternative, as we are not shy about saying is to sell your home without the estate agent through a private property sales portal like Zungalow.com, which allows private house sellers to advertise their home for £29 per year.