The Internet has been hailed as the new cut-price way to buy and sell just about anything you care to think of. Property has been at the forefront of the Internet revolution, with advocates such as ourselves claiming house hunting is particularly well suited to the World Wide Web. Some sources claim that the US has over 98% of its property stock for sale available on the web, so the online market in the UK is really only just reaching toddler status.

Amidst the furore of the heady Internet boom of this time last year, many predicted the demise of the traditional high street agent and that couch potatoes would be house-hunting from the sofa through their TV's and workers would be viewing houses without leaving their offices or their boss even knowing. But has this really been the case? Estate agents are still around and people seem so scared of buying a book or CD online that the prospect of spending a few hundred thousand on a new house seems an unlikely event. And anyway, there are so many property sites around, with almost all claiming to be the biggest and best, it's hard to know who has what property and where to start.

The claims are that the days of trudging around estate agent windows in the cold are over. These days the techno savvy can sit at home or work while taking full 360-degree tours of their prospective new home. It was hoped by some (not the estate agents) that the Internet would become a medium where potential buyers and sellers can meet and trade their homes without the need for estate agents. After all many buyers and sellers are sceptical of the need for agents anyway with many believing they get money for old rope.

But it's not all as simple as you may think. There are well over one hundred national property portals serving the UK alone and they are not all as useful as you would hope. Some use property from estate agents, some from private sellers, some from both and with some you just never know.

According to Houseweb, a site for the private sale of homes, this year more than 100,000 homeowners will save £1,500 on average by selling their home themselves. A home owner in Somerset sold his £375,000 property through the site and saved about £7,500 in estate agents fees. They predict that UK homeowners will follow in the footsteps of their German counterparts, where 50% of sales are private. New research from the Alliance and Leicester shows that homeowners think the Internet will play an increasing role in their home moves and expect organisations involved in the process to be able to deal this way.

But is this a realistic vision of the future? The snag is that many private sites have relatively few properties to attract buyers in the first place, but they do their best to make up for that by being innovative, and in many cases, by offering free listings.

Most of the more seductive sites with the bigger advertising budgets are set up run by chains of estate agents or powerful financial institutions. Most of these sites serve to simply help with the initial research into a new home and then channel you into the relevant estate agent. So, besides a few sites dedicated to the private buyer and seller it seems that the estate agents are the big gainers through increased exposure and therefore new instructions.

But there are even fears amongst the trade bodies that customers aren't getting the real deal on the Internet. The NAEA recently called for more regulation within the Internet property industry at a recent industry forum. As chief executive Hugh Dunsmore-Hardy said: "There are concerns over the credibility of some of the information on the sites and about site management. The Internet has developed rapidly over the past few years but there has been little or no regulation of the sites. Potential customers therefore have no means of assessing the reliability of the information provided, either about their own property, or about those they are looking to buy."

Furthermore, a recent Moving Intentions survey shows that homeowners don't feel that the companies providing them with online services are currently up to scratch. They expect the internet to have the following benefits:

• Convenience through being available for business 24/7
• Being information about progress of activities
• Cost savings
• Better deals such as cheaper mortgages.

Besides providing another point of access to their property portfolios other than shop windows and local press, what exactly are the benefits? House prices haven't fallen as a result of the Internet as is the case with CD's or books; many buyers and sellers are unwilling or simply don't have the time to undertake the sale of their house themselves. So estate agents appear to still be getting the same old money for the same old rope, possibly sharing a little of the money and rope with the new breed of internet property portals.

Another fact is that few sites have property that is exclusively theirs. Many sites use the same property databases dressed up in a different outfit. But the quality of detail and presentation can vary wildly. Many offer little more than an address and price while others provide full property schedules, photos and even virtual tours of a home. However, virtual tours aren't free and many sellers are unwilling to incur the extra cost, especially those trying to cut costs by avoiding using an agent. The photos and tours also take what seems to be an eternity to download and with the Internet supposedly all about saving time and money it seems there maybe still some way to go before we really can view homes from home.

Many home movers move within the same area as they already reside and know exactly where they want to live, right down to the road and type of property. How useful is a national search in such a case?

Some of the better sites allow you clearly define a comprehensive set of criteria right down to postcode and architectural style of your home. On the other hand many do not have such powerful searches or have many areas without any property to match. The number of sites returning the most frustrating 'No Matches Found' result is staggering for searches outside the capital. The problem is finding out which sites are which without spending hours trawling the net, in which case you might have well visited all the local estate agents anyway. And to be honest as much as we all like to hate estate agents they have the local knowledge and can add the personal touch many of us like when making a major life purchase.

The situation is even worse in the rental market. Rental properties rarely stay on the market for a prolonged period. In fact in popular areas such as London many are snapped up as soon as they become available. Many sites offer a selection of rental property but when enquiries are made you find they have already been let or they are merely a snare placed in the hope you will call or e-mail and they can advise on their current portfolio, a situation which can be extremely frustrating.

While not quite perfect just yet, property portals do have their upside. As mentioned earlier they provide another means to access the property market. This is especially useful if you are moving along distance or to an area you don't know. If a long way to go to look in an estate agents window in Penzance if you live in John O'Groats, and relocation experts don't come cheap.

Many sites have now added some really useful services for those initially investigating an area. Many have links from a specific property to a map of the area or aerial photo. Some of the more innovative sites offer virtual tours of town centres or complete local area guides which can be really useful, although it is no substitute for actually being there.

There is also a new breed of site entering the foray providing all sorts of data ranging from flood risk to pollution and crime levels for specific postcodes, many of which have team up with the property sites to give you easy access to the data. House price statistics are also available so you can judge for yourself if a property is correctly priced. These advances mean that buyers and sellers really can empower themselves with the facts about an area and don't have to trust the estate agent or seller.

The other half comes via the many services that you'll need when moving house which are available online and in many cases through the property portals themselves. These include the many financial products which have been popular commerce on the net for a few years now. Most offer online application forms or comparisons of different rates. Some even go as far as to search for the best mortgage for you based on your circumstances.

Surveys and conveyancing services are springing up online all the time, as are change of address and utility services providers. And it is here that estate agents and the Internet property portals will come into conflict. The portals will no doubt be looking for substantial revenue from these services while the estate agents will be hard pushed to give up this additional income. But as internet users become more comfortable with the internet and as the government relaxes laws to make services such as conveyancing easier to transact on the information super-highway, it will no doubt be the agents who lose out.

Well ultimately it will be the big players in the industry, although there are clear benefits for the simple homebuyer. Increased access to property and related services can only make our lives easier. No doubt technology will continue to improve and the level of services will get better and better and the online market consolidates and shakes out the weaker players, leaving the best sites with the best services and deepest portfolios of property. At least we now have the option to buy or sell ourselves, if we are willing to take the risk and added pressure.

As for estate agents, it seems we likely to be dealing with them for some time longer. Whether they will survive in their present form is debatable. If the Internet continues to develop it is quite possible that it will become the primary source of marketing for agents along with WAP and interactive TV. Many customers already insist that their property is displayed online. In which case it is quite possible that the agent will no longer need the high street presence they rely on so heavily at present.