An AI property description is only as good as the facts you give it. Used well, one property link or a set of photos becomes a listing description, a shareable listing page and social copy in minutes. Used badly, it produces a confident paragraph with a balcony the flat does not have. This guide is for estate agents who want the speed without the risk. It covers the workflow, the facts that must never be invented, the UK rules on accurate descriptions, and a worked example of a weak and a good AI description. It is part of our guide to AI for estate agents.
One source in, three outputs out
Every AI listing generator follows the same shape: a source goes in and drafts come out.
- The source. A link to the property (your own page, a vendor's brochure, a listing you are taking on), or a folder of photos plus a few typed facts.
- The listing description. A headline and 120 to 200 words in your house style.
- The shareable page. One web page with the photos, key facts and an enquiry route, so you can send a buyer a single link.
- Social copy. A short caption for each channel, written from the same facts.
The speed is real. The risk sits in one place: the model fills gaps. If the source does not say how big the living room is, a language model will happily describe it as spacious. That is a writing habit, which is why checking is a step and not an afterthought.
Start with a facts sheet, not a prompt
The most reliable method is to separate facts from wording. Before any AI writes a sentence, build a facts sheet from documents you hold: the vendor's instruction, the title information, the energy certificate, the floorplan. Then tell the AI to write only from that sheet.
These facts must never come from the model's imagination:
- Size. Floor area in square metres or square feet, as measured, and which measure you used. Never "approximately 90 sq m" because the photos looked big.
- Price. The asking price, the price basis (offers over, fixed price, guide) and any fees the buyer will necessarily pay.
- Rooms. Number of bedrooms, bathrooms and reception rooms. A box room that is too small to be a bedroom is not a bedroom.
- Energy rating. The rating from the valid energy performance certificate, copied exactly.
- Legal status. Freehold or leasehold, lease length, ground rent, service charge, and anything that limits use or sale.
- Features, condition and distances. Parking, outside space, "newly renovated", "south facing", "five minutes from the station". If you cannot show the document or photo, leave it out.
Put the instruction in plain words: write only from the facts sheet, use no figure that is not in it, and write "not stated" where a fact is missing. That one rule removes most invented detail.
UK rules on accurate descriptions
In England and Wales, accuracy in a listing is a legal matter, not a style choice. The sources below were read on 20 October 2026.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans unfair commercial practices. Its main provisions, sections 225 to 230, came into force on 6 April 2025 and took over from the 2008 consumer protection regulations as the basis for enforcement. Section 226 covers misleading actions: giving false information, or an overall presentation likely to deceive the average consumer, even if each detail is technically true. Section 227 covers misleading omissions. Section 230 says an advert that invites a purchase must give the main characteristics of the product and the total price, clearly and in time. Read the text of section 230 once.
The Competition and Markets Authority explains how it reads these rules in its unfair commercial practices guidance (CMA207), updated on 18 November 2025. It treats information as material when the average consumer needs it to take an informed decision, and it says that the sale or lease of land counts as a product. One of its own examples is a house advertised as having three bedrooms when one room is too small to be a bedroom, which could change whether someone views it. That is exactly the error an AI writes when it counts a study as a bedroom.
One caution about older checklists. The National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team published well known guidance on material information in listings. It has been withdrawn from official channels now that the 2024 Act has replaced the regulations it relied on, as Propertymark reported on 9 May 2025. Do not cite it as current law. Use CMA207 and the Act, and keep the old guidance as an internal checklist.
Two more rules apply directly to AI output. First, the Energy Performance of Buildings (England and Wales) Regulations 2012 require the energy rating from a valid certificate to appear in any advertisement of the sale or rental in commercial media, under regulation 11. Your generator must carry the rating through unchanged. Second, portals set their own rules. Rightmove's technical guidelines of January 2026 define content generated or manipulated by AI as an Enhanced Edit. It is allowed only if it does not misrepresent the property, it must come with current, accurate images of the room or property, and it must be clearly labelled as AI or enhanced. Those rules are about images, so the photo side is in our guide to AI property photos and video. A written description has to be true by the same principle.
Listing rules by market
The UK rules above do not travel. Each market below has its own duty to put energy performance data in the advert itself, and your generator must copy it from the certificate unchanged. This is a starting point, not legal advice. The sources were read on 20 October 2026, so check the current text before you rely on it. Each country's general rules on misleading advertising also apply and are not covered here.
- Germany. Under section 87 of the energy act (the Gebäudeenergiegesetz, which the official site now titles Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz), an advert in commercial media must state the certificate type, the final energy demand or consumption value and the main heating energy source, if a certificate exists when the advert is placed. For homes it must also state the construction year and the efficiency class from the certificate. The duty covers the seller, the landlord or the agent responsible for publishing.
- France. The ecology ministry states that a sale or rental advert must show at least the letters of the energy and climate scales from the DPE, the wording "logement à consommation énergétique excessive" for the worst classes, and since 1 January 2022 a range for the theoretical energy bill. The ministry points to decree 2020-1609.
- Spain. Royal Decree 390/2021, article 15, requires the energy efficiency label in every offer, promotion and advertisement for the sale or rental of a building or part of it. The label must say clearly whether it refers to the project, the finished work or an existing building, and labels that could mislead are banned.
- Italy. Legislative Decree 192/2005, article 6, paragraph 8, requires adverts for sale or rental in all commercial media to give the building's energy performance indices and the energy class. Residential lets used under four months a year are excepted.
- Poland. Article 13 of the building energy performance act (consolidated text of January 2024) requires an advert for the sale or rental of a building or unit with a certificate to state the annual usable energy demand, final energy, non-renewable primary energy, the renewable share and the CO2 emission indicator. It applies to the owner, the manager or anyone acting for them.
Add the certificate fields, in the local form, to your facts sheet, and check the finished advert for them before you approve it.
Worked example: a weak and a good AI description
This listing is illustrative. It is not a real property and has no real address. Here is the facts sheet, built from documents.
- Second floor flat in a 1930s purpose built block, lift not fitted
- Two bedrooms, one bathroom, one reception room with open kitchen
- Floor area 61 sq m (657 sq ft), measured on the floorplan
- Asking price £325,000, offers over
- Leasehold, 118 years remaining, ground rent £250 a year, service charge £2,100 a year
- Energy rating C, council tax band C
- One communal bike store, no parking, no balcony
The weak version came from asking a general chatbot to "write a great listing for this flat" with only the photos attached:
Stunning, spacious two bedroom apartment of around 85 sq m with a private south facing balcony. Beautifully renovated throughout with a brand new kitchen, this freehold gem sits moments from the station and offers parking for two cars. EPC B.
Count the problems. The size is invented and about 40 percent too large. The balcony does not exist. "Freehold" is wrong for a leasehold flat. The parking is invented. "Renovated" and "brand new kitchen" are claims with no document behind them. The energy rating is wrong. "Moments from the station" is unmeasured. Under the Act, each of these is a likely false statement about a main characteristic, and the missing lease details are a likely material omission.
The good version came from the same flat with the facts sheet attached and the instruction to write only from it:
Two bedroom second floor flat in a 1930s purpose built block. The 61 sq m (657 sq ft) layout has a living room with open kitchen, a double bedroom, a second bedroom and a bathroom. There is no lift and no parking, and a communal store holds bikes. Leasehold with 118 years remaining; ground rent £250 a year, service charge £2,100 a year. Energy rating C, council tax band C. Asking price £325,000, offers over.
It is plainer, and every number traces to a document. Add warmth by hand, such as the light you saw at the viewing, because you were there.
A six step check before anything goes live
- Build the facts sheet first from documents, and note the source of each fact.
- Generate from the sheet only, with the instruction to write "not stated" where a fact is missing.
- Compare every number in the draft with the sheet: size, price, rooms, rating, tenure.
- Strike every claim without evidence, such as renovated, south facing or quiet. Keep it only if you can show a document or photo.
- Read the photos against the text. The words must describe what the buyer will see on screen and on the day.
- Approve it yourself. A human decision, not a tool, is the last step, and the trading standards risk stays with the agent who published.
Run the same check on the page and every social caption.
Where AI listing tools go wrong
- Importing from a link copies its mistakes. If the source page is wrong, the draft is wrong. Check against your own documents.
- Photos do not show measurements. Models guess size and room use from pictures. Never publish a figure that came from a photo.
How Really does it
Really is Formule's AI agent: it does the work a CRM usually only records. In the Formule app you open the New listing form and use the Import from Online Listing shortcut, which takes a listing address from elsewhere and pulls in the details and photos. Really then helps you turn it into a listing draft and a shareable listing page, in your language: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian or Polish. It works in the app, on WhatsApp and by voice in the app.
These facts are live today, and the limits matter as much as the features:
- Nothing goes out without you. Formule's own documentation says to always check what the import brought in. Really shows any change as a card with the exact action, and you press Approve or Cancel.
- Draft first. A listing saved as a Draft is visible only inside Formule, and its public page is not live until you publish. The documentation suggests publishing when the photos and description are ready.
- Required details stay yours. Title, type, status, price, location and description are required fields. Bedrooms, bathrooms and size in square metres are optional, but buyers filter on them, so fill them from your facts sheet.
- The first photo is the header. The first image becomes the header on the public page, so put the best one first.
- Short video for social. A listing with images can generate a Listing Reel for social media from its gallery. AI images and videos are made in the Marketing section with credits, and on a solo account those tools need a paid plan. Anything AI made of a property should be labelled as such.
- Your own assistant too. Formule connects to Claude and ChatGPT through its MCP server, so you can ask them about your Formule data. Our guide to ChatGPT and Claude for estate agents shows how.
The listing documentation covers the form in detail. Once the page is live, enquiries arrive in the same pipeline, and reply speed decides what the page was worth, as we explain in AI lead follow-up on WhatsApp.
Formule has been live for 17 months with 14 agencies, and its catalogue holds 10,288 property listings. See the Formule UK page, or start free and let Really set up your account in one chat, with a 7 day Really trial.
The short version
AI writes listings fast, and accuracy stays the agent's job. Build the facts sheet first, generate only from it, check every number and claim, and approve it yourself.