Consumer experience: problems, remedies and redress
| Author | Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (European Commission), Deloitte consortium, IPSOS, London Economics |
| Pages | 188-219 |
188
8. Consumer experience: problems, remedies and redress
The consumer experience in the real estate market has proven to be rather unsatisfactory.
In the Eur opean Commission’s ‘Consumer Market Scoreboard 2016 edition’181 real estate
services appeared to have the worst performance of all markets surveyed. Specifically, the
real estate market has consistently displayed symptoms of malfunctioning with regard to
consumer protection. Moreover, an analysis by country shows a 19-point difference in the
Market Performance Indicator (MPI) between the country where this market performs best
(Malta) and the one where it performs worst (Croatia). The market scores relatively better
in Western and Northern Eur ope, whil e it scores less than average in the Southern and
Eastern European countries. The worst performance was noted in the composite indicator
that includes aspects such as consumer trust, consumer problems, choice and
comparability of offers and the extent to which consumer expectati ons are met. It is also
worth noting that the 2013 edition displayed a similar situation 182.
This chapter addresses first the (problems of the) consumer experience, as expre ssed by
consumers on both ends of the market. The ‘Consumer Market Scoreboard 2016 edition’183
showed that 15% of consumers surveyed had experienced a problem with a real estate or
letting agent (where they thought you had a legitimate cause for complaint). This study
did not attempt to replicate this figure, but instead attempted to study the type of problems
that occur most frequently i n the real estate services market. This chapter then looks
further into th e problems by combining the consumer survey findings with those of the
stakeholder survey; it continues by looking at the data of the formally raised complaints in
the sector. The next section di scusses consumer protection and mechanisms in place for
consumers to address these problems. Last, this chapter considers remedies and red ress.
Box 6: Summary of findings Consumer experience: problems, remedies and redress
• The consumer experience h as proven to be unsatisfactory. The demand side of the
market seems more prone to problems, as only a third of buying and renting
consumers experienced no problems with the process, in contrast to two thirds of
sellers and landlords.
• Most frequent problems were in relation to the process, and included hidden costs,
terms and conditions that were too complex or unclear, missing information on
property damages, misleading information about energy standards and false and
untruthful information about charges for utilities.
• Several mechanisms exist for consumers to formally rai se a complaint, including
consumers’ interest associations, or ADR bodies such as Ombudsman, the European
Consumer Centre Network (ECC-Net), local or national administrations, or even the
Supreme Court. Still, a quarter of consumers that experienced problems did not know
who to complain to. It is also worth noting that only a minority of respondents
consider that consumers are very aware of their rights.
181 European Commission, (2016). “Consumer Markets Scoreboard. Making markets work for consumers”.
Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_evidence/consumer_scoreboards/12_edition/docs/
consumer_markets_scoreboard_2016_en.pdf
182 Idem
183 Idem, see page 67
189
8.1 The consumer experience
This section summarises the problems that consumers revealed to face i n the consumer
survey. It fi rst discusses those experienced by consumers who either bought or rented a
property and then those expressed by consumers who either sold or let a property.
8.1.1 Problems when buying and renting
Problems during the process
Across the EU28, 30% of consumers who had recently bought/rented a property (or wh o
had attempted to do so), had not experienced any problems during this process. The
Netherlands stands out with 52% of resp ondents who had not experienced any problems,
while in the countries at the bottom of the country ranking, less than one in six respondents
had not experienced any problems (e.g. 11% in Greece and 12% in Romania and Hungary).
The following groups of consumers were the most likely NOT to have experienced any
problems during the buying/renting process: con sumers who bought a property (33% did
not experience problems, compared to 24% for those renting a property), consumers older
than 54 years-of-age (37% vs. 25% for 18-34 year-olds), lower educated consumers (34%
vs. 28% of highly educated), consumers with a “very easy” financi al situation (40% vs.
19% for those who reported that making ends meet is not easy at all).
Figure 70: Proportion of consumers who had NOT experienced any problems during the process
of buying/renting a property
Question: Q20. Still thinking about the last property you bought/rented (or attempted to buy/rent), have you
experienced any of the following problems?
Base: respondents who bought/rented a property (or attempted to buy/rent a property) (EU28: n=12,121)
Source: Main Task 2 Consumer survey
Across the EU28, 32% of consumers who had recently bought/rented a property (or who
had attempted to do so), had encountered difficulties due to increasing prices/rent for
properties on the market and 29% had experienced problems due to the lack of
affordable housing. This type of problems was more frequently mentioned by younger
consumers; for example, 24% of over 54 year -olds had experienced p roblems due to the
lack of affordable housing, compared to 33% of 18-34 year-olds.
Problems related to the scarcity of available properties compared to the demand for
property w ere also raised by focus group participants in both Germany and the
Netherlands. It appears that these issues are generally observed in urban areas, including
capital cities.
The scarce supply of properties may result in several consequences for consumers. Firstly,
it seems that po wer hierarchy and power distribution pa rticularly impact buyers and
tenants. Secondly, especially in large citi es, it appears that there is a lot of competition
to visit properties and consequently, to be selected to purchase or rent a property.
Finally, the fact that housing in big cities, such as Amste rdam, is extremely expensive
52
38 37 35 35 34 34 32 31 31 30 30 29 29 26 25 25 23 22 21 19 18 18 16 14 14 13 13 12 12 11
46
23
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
NL
DK
BE
UK
ES
FR
CY
EU15
SE
PT
EU28
DE
IT
PL
FI
LU
CZ
MT
IE
EU13
BG
AT
SI
EE
SK
HR
LV
LT
HU
RO
EL
NO
IS
% who has not experienced any problems
190
makes it very difficult for first-time buyers to purchase a property. As a consequence,
first-time buyers who cann ot afford to buy a property often have to enter the renting
market.
Table 33: Type of problems experienced during the process of buying/renting a property
Increasing
prices/
rent of
properties
in the
market
Lack of
affordable
dwellings
Expensive
to deal
with real
estate
agents
Missing
information
about
damages to
the property
Hidden
costs
when
renting/
buying
property
Missing/
misleading
information
on energy
standards
Too
complex
and
unclear
terms and
conditions
False and
untruthful
information
about
charges for
utilities
Health
problems
resulting
from poor
quality of
the property
Other
AT
51%
41%
46%
26%
31%
21%
16%
18%
6%
4%
BE
27%
25%
12%
21%
17%
14%
8%
8%
3%
3%
BG
50%
24%
48%
33%
31%
26%
21%
18%
7%
1%
CY
41%
48%
17%
14%
14%
15%
7%
6%
5%
2%
CZ
42%
29%
29%
24%
20%
19%
20%
12%
5%
3%
DE
42%
34%
36%
24%
19%
15%
12%
14%
5%
2%
DK
20%
22%
24%
21%
12%
13%
9%
6%
6%
4%
EE
38%
53%
39%
30%
26%
21%
11%
16%
6%
3%
EL
38%
58%
42%
46%
24%
25%
16%
18%
8%
1%
ES
26%
20%
21%
22%
19%
20%
14%
12%
8%
2%
FI
31%
42%
17%
28%
13%
13%
9%
10%
8%
7%
FR
22%
25%
36%
19%
19%
18%
10%
9%
3%
4%
HR
42%
54%
39%
43%
39%
25%
23%
27%
5%
2%
HU
53%
49%
42%
37%
33%
19%
20%
16%
9%
2%
IE
48%
38%
22%
23%
27%
19%
14%
9%
9%
5%
IT
24%
26%
24%
14%
16%
20%
18%
11%
3%
1%
LT
57%
47%
33%
23%
22%
16%
14%
14%
5%
1%
LU
54%
44%
16%
21%
23%
13%
10%
8%
5%
5%
LV
39%
51%
22%
29%
31%
13%
13%
16%
6%
0%
MT
49%
38%
26%
26%
31%
19%
19%
9%
5%
5%
NL
16%
22%
8%
10%
8%
7%
8%
5%
2%
7%
PL
19%
20%
30%
20%
20%
15%
15%
15%
4%
2%
PT
47%
22%
10%
22%
12%
12%
13%
6%
4%
1%
RO
47%
48%
40%
35%
28%
26%
14%
23%
7%
1%
SE
39%
35%
23%
21%
13%
9%
10%
4%
5%
3%
SI
30%
57%
31%
26%
32%
24%
21%
18%
6%
2%
SK
47%
49%
30%
30%
26%
24%
17%
15%
7%
2%
UK
31%
24%
25%
21%
25%
12%
14%
8%
6%
3%
EU28
32%
29%
29%
22%
20%
17%
14%
12%
5%
3%
EU15
31%
28%
28%
21%
19%
16%
13%
11%
5%
3%
EU13
36%
35%
34%
28%
25%
20%
16%
17%
6%
2%
IS
52%
53%
27%
21%
18%
18%
14%
6%
3%
3%
NO
23%
21%
19%
17%
8%
5%
8%
4%
3%
5%
Question: Q20. Still thinking about the last property you bought/rented (or attempted to buy/rent), have you
experienced any of the following problems?
Base: respondents who bought/rented a property (or attempted to buy/rent a property) (EU28: n=12,121)
Source: Main Task 2 Consumer survey
The consumer survey also observed that o ne in five respondents had been faced with
hidden costs when re nting/buying a property and 14% reported that the terms and
conditions had been too complex and unclear. This type of problems was more frequently
reported by higher educated respondents than by lower educated respondents. For
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