Westminster Council plans to ban estate agents from placing for sale and to let signs outside residential and commercial properties unless explicit permission is requested for each one.
Estate agent boards of a certain number and size can currently be erected on properties without the benefit of advertisement consent. But that could be about to change as the council wants to restrict the use of signs across the entire borough. Some parts of Westminster already ban estate agent boards under the Regulation 7 Direction, which came into effect in 2010.
The existing ban prohibits the display of estate agent boards across all conservation areas. Estate agent boards cannot be displayed in these areas unless advertisement consent is obtained.
The authorisation for the existing partial ban in selected areas expires in May 2025, and the council now wants to extend the ban. It is seeking consent from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government for a Regulation 7 Direction to remove deemed permission for the display of estate agents’ boards across the entire City of Westminster.
The council argues that estate agency boards have an adverse visual impact on the borough, while also claiming that boards are no longer relevant given that most property searches now take place online.
There are also concerns that some estate agents are not fully complying with the existing regulations governing signs.
Only one estate agency board per property is permitted, while they must be removed no later than 14 days after completion of the sale or granting of the tenancy.
Estate agents would still be able to put a for sale or to let sign up, but only after applying to the council for permission first. There has been a significant drop in such applications in the existing controlled areas over the past few years, from 511 requests in 2013 to just 18 in 2023.
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