A London property investment firm has had an email advert banned after the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled it was misleading.
The email from Newbuild Sales Ltd claimed that property prices in London E14 “are expected to increase 5-10+% at a minimum over the next 18 months and have already done so in the past, and therefore equates to 50-100% return on actual investment.”
However, a complainant claimed this implied a guaranteed price increase and said the advert was misleading.
Newbuild Sales Ltd denied the claim saying it made no reference to a guarantee.
It also said the predicted price increase was based on information from an online regional newspaper article and referred to a second online article as evidence.
However, the ASA upheld the complaint, saying the ad implied it was “highly likely” that the value of the properties would increase by the advertised rate.
It also discovered that one of the newspaper stories was published after the email ad was distributed.
In its ruling, the ASA said: “The ad must not appear again in the form complained of.
“We also told them [Newbuild Sales Ltd] to: ensure that when making forecasts for returns on investment the basis of the calculation was made clear; make clear that the value of such investments was variable and could go down as well as up; and when quoting past performance to make clear that was not necessarily a guide for the future.”
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