Property buyers relying on artificial intelligence platforms for purchasing decisions risk making costly errors due to flawed data and misleading analysis, according to a buying agent.
Rob Fanshawe, partner at Property Vision, has warned that whilst AI has provided buyers with rapid access to property information, the technology’s limitations could result in financial mistakes running into thousands of pounds.
“The trouble starts when they convince themselves they have two” eyes, Fanshawe said, referring to buyers who believe AI-generated research provides complete market insight.
Flawed comparables and missing data
Fanshawe cited an example of a buyer considering a £6 million Cotswolds property who used an AI platform to assess whether the asking price was justified. The platform identified three nearby properties suggesting a lower price per square foot, but the analysis proved fundamentally flawed.
“On closer inspection, one of those ‘comparables’ is an asking price rather than a completed sale, another required a full refurbishment, and the third sits on a busy road,” Fanshawe explained. “Meanwhile, the genuinely relevant transaction – a similar house sold privately two streets away – never appeared on a portal at all.”
The issue reflects broader challenges facing estate agents navigating technology-driven market changes, as buyers increasingly arrive with AI-generated research that may be out of date, based on flawed comparisons, or what industry professionals term ‘hallucinated’ data.
Information versus judgement
According to Fanshawe, the underlying problem stems from imperfect source data that AI platforms interpret. Common errors include confusing asking prices with achieved prices, recycling outdated market commentary, or drawing conclusions from postcode-level data that don’t reflect specific streets or properties.
“In the past, a buyer generally knew when they did not know something. Today they can receive a beautifully structured answer in under 10 seconds and assume the uncertainty has disappeared. It hasn’t,” he said.
The development comes as the property sector undergoes broader technological transformation, with conveyancers adopting transaction reforms and agents integrating various digital tools into their operations.
Fanshawe acknowledged that AI can interrogate large quantities of information, summarise documents, research planning histories and flag questions requiring further investigation. However, he emphasised that experienced agents provide judgement rather than simply supplying information.
“The explosion of readily available information may actually make experienced advice more valuable, not less,” Fanshawe said. “In the coming years, the advantage in property will not belong to whoever has access to the most information, everyone will have more than they know what to do with. It will belong to whoever can distinguish intelligence from noise.”
The warning highlights the continuing importance of human expertise in property transactions despite rapid technological advancement, with market knowledge and experience remaining difficult to replicate through automated systems.