John Brown, director of DTZ Residential has called for a purchaser deposit scheme to be introduced so as to locks both buyer and seller into a contract, in turn preventing mass gazundering and gazumping.

He is proposing the highest bidder pays 2% of the purchase price as a deposit and a further 3% on concluding missives.

Mr Brown said the system would also stop gazumping, where a vendor pulls out of an deal because they have received a higher offer from a third party, as the seller would be bound into an early contract by accepting the deposit.