We spoke to Ciara Kelly about the issue of ‘fake bids’ and whether they exist or not. We believe they do but not that they are widespread. The more concerning issue is around the bid that gets accepted because the true conflict of interest would be where a buyer pays an agent to ensure they are the ‘winning bid’, again, this is not widespread but there are enough stories in circulation to believe that it has occurred. The best solution around this is to ensure people register their bids publicly, this would stop most of the chicanery (where it exists) and could even be a form of additional income to the property regulator and an estate agent if there was a fee involved for doing so.