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.
It is difficult to quantify how common the practice is, says the Guild of Property Professionals, a trade group of independent estate agents, but it has issued guidance on how to use AI enhancement responsibly.
According to a recent survey, external of 906 UK homebuyers, one in five who had who purchased a home in the past year said they had viewed a property where the listing photos had been digitally enhanced to make the home appear better than it actually was.
Jack Bushrod reviews quirky property listings he finds on Rightmove for his social media channel, Housing Horrors, and says he has seen a “surge” of AI-enhanced images over the last six months.
He thinks using AI is fine up to a point – to declutter a busy room, or add furniture to an empty one so a prospective buyer can see its potential.
But he draws the line at anything that misleads a prospective buyer or wastes their time.
“I’ve seen one house where they had removed a pillar and added a window. Others might use AI to remove stains on the carpet or cracks in tiles. It’s little details you would only notice in person.”
He says most of the enhanced images he’s seen weren’t clearly labelled as AI-generated.
