Property: Can't get no satisfaction?

Imagine you have just been gazumped or your house sale has fallen through and on the way out of the estate agent's office after strong words you find a questionnaire asking how satisfied you are with the service.

Not much chance that unfortunate office is going to be nominated as estate agent of the year. But the 730 estate agents who put themselves forward for this year's competition had more faith in themselves and their clients.

More than 70 per cent of customers said they were delighted with the service they received. For the first time the findings of the beauty contest - the National Association of Estate Agents "Office of the Year Awards" in association with Nationwide Building Society - have been made public.

Mike Lazenby, of the Nationwide, says there has been a marked improvement in the quality of service around the country "although the improvement was less noticeable among London agents". While 93 per cent of sellers would recommend their agent, only 88 per cent of buyers were entirely happy, which bears out what many agents now feel - that the buyers deserve better.

When it comes to the more complicated world of letting and renting, overall satisfaction is less. But perhaps the true test comes not with a smooth sale but when problems occur and here only 40 per cent gave top marks to their agent, with a tenth only giving one or two points.

The winners who were selected after undercover customers put them through their paces were Black Horse Agencies - Parkinson Fairlie Robertson in Hayling Island, Hampshire for corporate sales; Jones and Redfearn in Rhyl, Denbighshire in independent sales and JSC Lettings, Virginia Water, Surrey in the lettings and management sector.

Frustrated buyers with a million-odd pounds burning a hole in their pockets are resorting to purchasing a place only to knock it down and start again. Houses built in the 1920s and 1930s seem particular targets - spacious with land but out of date. In St George's Hill, Surrey, Knight Frank saw a dated property in 2.5 acres sell for more than pounds 1m to make way for a "mansion" of 11,000 sq ft.

And emerging from the dust of a farmhouse-style family home in Blackhills, an exclusive private road in Esher, will be another luxury mansion house. On the Crown Estate in Oxshott, nine properties ranging in price from pounds 600,000 to pounds 800,000 were bought purely for plot value.

While in Hampstead, London, Glentree Estates has sold a house for more than pounds 2m to someone who intends to pull it down. It was on the market for two years. Trevor Abrahmsohn says the rebuilding may not cost a lot more than major refurbishment since no one knows what they will find. Nor is there, of course, any VAT payable on new build.