She told the Sunday Tribune that the fee hike . . . from 1% to 1.5% of the sale price . . . came to light only because an RTE reporter who was selling their house came back to the firm after first approaching it more than six months ago, before the increases came into effect.

Both the Consumers' Association and the National Consumer Agency (NCA) lashed out at the increase. Dermot Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association, urged sellers to "retaliate" by selling their own homes. NCA chief Ann Fitzgerald said it was "bewildering" that fees would be higher now than when houses "walked out the door".

The spokeswoman said selling a house had changed since last year's market peak from simply "managing a process" that could take as little as four weeks to "marketing a property" for two months or more, a more expensive proposition. "We probably have always been at the high end of the market and wouldn't make any apologies for that, " she said.

She said the firm had been charging commission of 1.5% as recently as 18 months ago and that Irish fees still compared favourably with its business in London, where they come in at 2%-2.5%. Sherry FitzGerald chief executive Mark FitzGerald also defended the increase in a statement on Thursday, saying the new fee levels were necessary to sustain high levels of service in a more challenging market.

But other estate agents, including Colliers Jackson-Stops, Hooke McDonald and Lisney, seeing their competitor in trouble, jumped on the opportunity to point out that their fees would not be going up.