The story - as we understand it - is that last week's Mail On Sunday suggested Tesco was entering the market with support from FindaProperty and Primelocation... strange, since FindaProperty and Primelocation exist thanks to the support of estate agents, who are first in the firing line (or, perhaps, second after other on-the-cheap property sales sites) if Tesco's low-cost, flat-fee service wins out. Rival portal PropertyFinder was quick to point out the irony, in a blog entry by CEO Warren Bright, and an email sent around their estate agency clients:

... Unlike Primelocation and FindaProperty we will not be supplying properties to the Tesco website. Our business is based on supporting estate agents, so we won't be promoting a service that tries to undermine them. Portals providing properties to Tesco will simply add value to the website, which will attract more users and therefore make more people aware of this cut price, no service offering. We don't think this is in the best interests of the industry...

Next to respond: FindaProperty, with an email denying their involvement in Tesco's ever-more-controversial and confusing launch, and a demand that Bright removes the contents of his blog entry. (The entry in question appears to have vanished.)

[from FindaProperty CEO David Garratt]... I can categorically state that FindaProperty.co has no plans whatsoever to upload property details to Tesco's web site. This decision was taken for a number of reasons, not least because the Tesco site will apparently offer homeowners the opportunity to sell privately through the web site and we fully understand that many agents would not wish their properties to appear on such a site.

According to the Rat and Mouse agent... as the week ended Fish4Homes also denied a relationship with Tesco. We note they are currently described as a "property portal partner" on Tesco's front page. It's a confusing picture. Just wait until next Wednesday when Sainsbury announces its estate agency plans. Only kidding.