Increasing numbers of people are choosing to buy or sell their home privately driven partly by a distrust of estate agents, it has been claimed.

According to the online property service HouseWeb, private selling has numerous advantages over going through an intermediary, not least the ability for all interested parties to communicate with each other directly.

In addition, such a process can often give a buyer a greater sense of confidence, the website stated.

Commenting on the impact that the recent BBC programme which showed the underhand tactics of some estate agents has had on the market, Ariane Decloux, spokesperson for HouseWeb, said: "I think it would have put them off [estate agents] but in a lot of cases they already knew this was happening.

"I don't think it came as a surprise.

"That is another advantage of selling privately - you don't have all those layers of lies."

However, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors puts the number of private sellers as just three to four per cent of the total market, with any issues to mistrust expected to be banished by the forthcoming Consumer and Estate Agents Redress Act, set be come into effect in 2008.