According to the Financial Times, it’s a “phoney property portal war” – and there’s one real disruptor on the horizon.

The FT article by Paul Murphy names it as theipropertycompany.com which, it says, “hasn’t formally launched as yet”.

Eye was a bit surprised to learn this as we have covered this site before. Our readers will know it as the site that is backed by the National House Building Council, and allows private sellers and landlords as well as developers – but bans agents.

However, according to the FT, in terms of disruption this seems to “be the real thing – no commissions or other fees, because it’s not an agent”.

The article ends: “It takes agents out of the equation entirely. Which, if it works and if it spreads to other countries, might well quality for some sort of Queen’s Expert Award.”

So, it’s not an estate agent.

But can we be sure? Tesco, after all, thought it wasn’t an estate agent and was a bit surprised to be told it was and had to conform to the Estate Agents Act – apparently caught out by its use of For Sale boards.

However, “passive intermediaries” are exempt from much regulation provided all they do is act as a platform which introduces buyers and sellers to each other.

On theipropertycompany site, we note that the service is entirely free, but the company does make its money by providing optional property-related services.

For example, it offers property valuations at £19.95, signboards at £65 and photography at £89.

Property commentator Henry Pryor took to Twitter to disagree with the FT assessment of theipropertycompany: “I fear that [they] ARE estate agents as defined by 1979 Act regardless of 0% fee.”

Pryor told Eye that he believed the firm to be estate agents because he thought they did a degree of “hand holding” that goes beyond simply allowing buyers and sellers to contact each other.

This is what the FT wrote on Monday.

This is what Eye reported way back last July.

And to help readers make up their minds as to whether this is an estate agent or not, here’s the site.