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

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.

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.

Cara, 38, is currently selling her home in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and says she was surprised when she saw the AI-enhanced pictures of her property her estate agent, Howards, put on Rightmove.

In one photo, her son's room was completely emptied of toys and clutter.

In another, of her daughter's room, the agent appears to have removed a doll's house, brightened the room, and used AI to change the shape of a rug, but that image has since been taken down.

Cara has had several viewings so far and says that one person has commented on the differences. But she says she trusts Howards, which has acknowledged the use of AI in the property listing.

"If they'd changed something structurally or it was really wild and didn't look like our home at all then I would put my foot down," she says.

A spokeswoman told the BBC that Howards had now introduced a policy of labelling all AI-enhanced photos. She added that the firm never used AI "to misrepresent the fundamental features of a property".

"It's about helping people imagine the possibilities, not changing the reality of what's being sold."

'Jumping on the bandwagon'

Trading Standards told the BBC that estate agents can use AI to make basic enhancements to photos, or to virtually furnish an empty room or garden, as long as they indicate they have used the technology.