A GROUND-BREAKING scheme has been launched this week to get the property market moving and help prevent the widely forecast 30 per cent fall in house prices.

The website completingchains.com is the brainchild of Basingstoke estate agent Matthew Southey, founder of Jacobs, who has spent months working to develop and launch new software to revolutionise the way property chains are put together.

If the project is the runaway success that is predicted, then the market across the UK could spring back into life - and all thanks to an idea born in Basingstoke.

Apart from Mr Southey, the idea has been bought into by Basingstoke solicitors Phillips, software developer Chris Goodall, of CG Consultancy, and national television property guru Sarah Beeny.

Estate agents who have signed up to the £50-a-month scheme, including several in Basingstoke, now have the software to start using the website, and a new site for consumers will arrive on the web at the end of the month.

The software recognises people buying and selling and those just buying or just selling, and eventually matches property chains to first-time buyers who have mortgage facilities in place.

Rather than using the traditional method of building a chain from the bottom upwards, completingchains.com works from the top downwards, releasing the minimum amount of equity needed to bring the first-time-buyer property to an affordable price.

It is designed to create a stable platform on which estate agents can then begin nego-tiations and allows sellers to look for a new property before having a sale agreed.

Mr Southey said: "Old-fashioned estate agency and good negotiation skills will be backed by the technology of completing chains.com"

He added: "It will be the first time that agents will be able to see the whole chain before sales are agreed. There are huge benefits to the whole of the property market, but the consumer benefits the most."

Sarah Beeny said: "The ability for agents to view all the potential links in the chain prior to sale agreed means they can demonstrate to the vendor that a complete chain can be achieved and use their skills in negotiation to get the best deal for everyone along the chain, allowing first-time buyers to step on to the ladder and property owners to retain their equity."

The scheme has also had the backing of Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, who said: "Agents have everything to gain with this initiative from completingchains.com as it addresses the core of the problem."

Estate agent Roger Lane, a founder of The Right Move in Basingstoke, said: "I estimate that there are approximately 2,000 properties for sale in Basingstoke and I think I'd be correct in assuming that most of those sellers are also looking to buy.

"Completingchains.com can capture the buying criteria of each one of those people and, as we upload new properties into the system, it will expose them to each one of them, sending us the potential matches."

Agents wanting to know more about completingchains.com can call 0845 302 6444.