Letter from the Publisher

Hello and welcome back to Industry Views.

This week has been another busy one for the property industry with the biggest news being Housing Minister Brandon Lewis' announcement of a RICS-backed best practice' code for letting agents.

Described as a milestone for the industry' by Property Ombudsman Christopher Hamer and a step in the right direction' by ARLA, you can read all about it here.

That brings us to the theme of this week's letter. What would you like to read about We are keen to hear from our agent readership of anything you think needs covering in either Breaking News, Industry Views (we are always on the lookout for new contributors) or the Blogs section of the sites. Please send any suggestions to press@estateagenttoday.co.uk or leave a comment at the bottom of this article and we will follow them up.

In this week's selection of Industry Views articles, our conveyancing expert Rob Hailstone uses his personal experience to discuss the inefficiency and slow nature of the home buying process.

What's more, The Secret Agent is back and this week he talks about buying agents and gives some more background into his thoughts on the Agents' Mutual proposal in response to a comment from a reader, Roderick Thomas, last week.

And, our series on Young People in the Property Industry continues with its fourth instalment. A range of experienced agents from Bradleys, Romans, Waterfords and more explore the role of young agents in our ever-growing sector.

If you've missed this week's news, our weekly video roundup is now available for you to take in all the biggest stories of the week in a mere 4 minutes and 28 seconds.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Emma Lunn for doing a sterling job standing in for Graham Norwood as Editor-in-Chief between Friday and Wednesday.

And finally, as mentioned in the video, we are very proud of our social media following. The Estate Agent Today twitter page now has 16.5k followers and Graham himself has accumulated an impressive following in excess of 14k.

You can follow Estate Agent Today @EAToday and Graham Norwood @PropertyJourn.

That's all for now, enjoy this week's articles and have a great weekend!