House-hunters in the UK say property adverts that use artificial intelligence to add furniture and finishes are misleading them, according to BBC reporting. Two people searching in Brighton, East Sussex, described arriving at viewings to find homes very different from the images they had seen on portals such as Rightmove. The BBC published their accounts on Saturday.
Why it matters
What the viewers found
Jessica Otterwell, who is looking for a flat in Brighton, told the BBC she had been excited enough about one property to tell her parents about it, then found the reality far below what the pictures suggested. She described arriving at a space in poor repair with little in it beyond a stained mattress, and said the painted walls, artwork and fitted kitchen shown online were nowhere to be seen. She likened the experience to being deceived on a dating app, and called the practice false advertising.
Leyla Ledwith, 31, spent three months searching for a rental in the same city. Of the twelve properties she visited, she told the BBC, only two contained the furnishings pictured on Rightmove. She described adverts showing bright, modern interiors with attractive furniture, followed by viewings of dark, worn rooms. In her view the mismatch wastes the time of renters, buyers, sellers, landlords and agents alike.
The industry's case
Estate agents defend the technique as a practical response to a real problem. David Vaughan, a director at the Sussex firm Aston Vaughan, told the BBC that digitally furnishing a property serves both sides of a transaction. Physically staging a home with furniture can cost from around £5,000 on average and as much as £50,000, he said, so virtual staging delivers a large saving for owners. He added that buyers have said empty rooms are difficult to judge for size, and that showing a room dressed makes it easier to picture living there.
Warren Powell-Richards, an agency covering Surrey and Hampshire, told the BBC that AI will be part of the industry's future. The firm said agents must avoid letting enthusiasm for what the technology can do come at the cost of the customer's experience. It rejected an anti-AI stance as unrealistic given how reliant the world is becoming on such tools, but argued that AI is a tool and cannot replace trust.
Miles & Barr, an East Kent agency, said using AI and computer-generated imagery to help buyers and tenants visualise a property has long been standard practice. A spokesperson told the BBC that accurate representation on the platform is essential, and that the firm acts when images are found to be misleading — asking for corrections, taking a listing down, or going further where needed.
Chris Norris, chief policy officer at the National Residential Landlords Association, told the BBC it is worrying that some users feel deceived. He said listing sites must apply AI responsibly as they adopt it, so that people are not confused at any stage of their search.
Disclosure in practice
The accounts from Brighton suggest the cost of that ambiguity is measured in wasted trips and dashed expectations, and that the people most affected see the current labelling regime as too easy to sidestep.
Watch whether Rightmove tightens its labelling requirements or steps up enforcement, and whether agents adopt clearer disclosure as a matter of course.
