Innovative online estate agency Brightsale have announced a new partnership with north-west group Thornley Groves. How's it working? TG buys a 25% stake in Brightsale; Brightsale lists all its 650 properties, bringing its total listings to more than 900 (note that Brightsale isn't a search engine or portal... it's an agency that exists online).

It's an interesting development - you'd think hardly surprising at a time when agents are struggling to cover astronomical, 20th Century costs in a frail 21st Century market. But British estate agency is famously conservative. Watch this space.

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