The rise of 'housefishing' - when does using AI go from enhancing to misleading?

ByDaniel Thomas

BBC News

Have you ever been impressed by the pictures of a property on an estate agent's website, only to find the place looks completely different when you view it in person?

Then there's a chance that AI was used to enhance the images you saw.

From repainted walls to imaginary lawns, estate agents are increasingly using the technology to make homes seem more appealing, arguing it helps buyers visualise the potential of a place.

But experts warn it can go too far and mislead prospective buyers - a trend dubbed "housefishing".

So how much AI enhancement is too much?

'The rooms were much smaller'

Earlier this year Olivia Nicole, 29, was searching online for five-bedroom properties in south-west London when a house on Rightmove caught her eye.

But when she arrived to view it several days later she initially thought she had come to the wrong place.

"The rooms were much smaller than they were in the pictures and the decor was totally different," she tells the BBC. "Some structural features were also different."

For example, there was a raised section of the wall behind the sofa that didn't appear in the images. The windows were also noticeably smaller. Olivia was so surprised she took her own pictures of the property for comparison.

It later turned out the pictures she had seen on Rightmove, which also appeared on the Zoopla and Winkworth websites, were enhanced with AI.

But that wasn't clear in the listing, Olivia says, and she feels the agent wasted her time.

"It was frustrating, because I had taken several hours off work for the viewing which I had to make up for."

All three companies told the BBC they had strict guidelines on how AI could be used on their websites and have since taken the images down.

'A surge of AI listings'

Estate agents have long used wide-angle lens cameras or Photoshop to make homes seem bigger or more appealing to buyers, but AI is making this process much easier and more accessible.