A company has developed a revolutionary mobile phone application to help estate agents sell properties.

The app allows people to scan a QR – quick response – code on a for sale sign to bring up instant details of the property.

Potential buyers can touch the screen to see the cost, click on images of rooms on an interactive floor plan, and access all the usual estate agent details.

The smartphone app has been developed by PINGiT Media and is being piloted by IPS Estate Agents, in London Road, Leicester.

The developer has also agreed a partnership with Countrywide Signs, which installs to let and for sale boards for agents across the country.

Dave Elliott, of North Luffenham, runs the company with Aaron Henderson. They use two programmers in London.

Mr Elliott said: "There are 12,000 estate agents in the country and Countrywide Signs has 20 per cent of them on its books.

"But in theory the opportunity is there to get this into every estate agency in the UK. There are two million signs out there. If we could get one in five agents, that would be fantastic.

"We charge agents £105 a month and haven't spoken to a single one which hasn't said 'wow'."

He said the app was better than anything the competition offered because it was so interactive and because it used GPS technology to work out which house the person was standing outside.

The company approached Countrywide Signs after discovering estate agents no longer installed their own boards. It now has a mutual exclusivity agreement.

PINGiT Media is in also talks with two nationwide estate agents, with 84 branches between them.

The company was launched three months ago after Mr Elliott and Mr Henderson took redundancy from their jobs in sales and design with a regional magazine publisher.

They have invested about £10,000 so far.

Mr Elliott said: "We both felt that the future of the magazine business was heading in one direction and the future of the mobile business was heading in the other.

"We had the idea early in the year and the time was right. We have started with estate agents but we see PINGiT as a brand that can move into other areas of retail."

Mr Henderson said he was also working with Nokia to develop applications for the phone company's new cashless pay-by-phone technology.

Kam Johal, managing director of IPS Estate Agents, said it started using the QR system in August – starting with two dozen properties, with plans to roll it out to 200 this month.

He said: "Countrywide Signs approached us for our thoughts.

"The system wasn't even running at the time but we said we wanted to run with it there and then."

Simon Smith is the Coalville-based national sales manager for Countrywide Signs, which has 60 franchisees around the UK.

It installs 80 per cent of all boards in Leicestershire.

He said: "QR codes are brilliant for estate agents to get potential buyers direct to their websites.

"Before now you would need a different QR code for every board, which was a nightmare. PINGiT is unique because it knows exactly where you are so knows which board you've scanned.

"We're basically operating as the distributor and I would say the potential for growth is phenomenal. I can see 20 per cent of the whole country within two years."