SOCIAL enterprise company The Eaga Partnership has launched a venture which could net it a share of the £65m building survey market.

The Newcastle-based group has taken on the former president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Peter Fall, to lead its new company, Eaga Homes.

Mr Fall, originally from Teesside, created the Insight Homes Survey, which aims to cut through the jargon of traditional surveys and can be carried out online using technology developed specifically for the product.

He is aiming to become the largest building survey provider in the North-East, where the market is worth more than £3m, and, in the longer-term, the largest in the UK.

Instead of using venture capital money to fund his new enterprise, Mr Fall's product won the backing of the Eaga Partnership and he has now been taken on as managing director of Eaga Homes to launch and roll out the product.

He believes Insight could shake up the property market, as instead of trawling through complicated jargon, homebuyers can view photographs, arrows and notes to pinpoint specific problems with their property.

About 98 per cent of North-East property buyers have a mortgage valuation, and 40 per cent have a housebuyers' survey and valuation.However, only eight per cent have a building survey, despite the fact this is the most informative.

Mr Fall said the cost of the home survey would vary with the size and location of the property, but it would be from £600 - in most cases, less than the stamp duty.

The first company which has come on board to carry out the new surveys is Darlington chartered surveying firm Harrison and Johnson.

Senior partner John Harrison said: "The new technology means carrying out a building survey can now be done quickly and can include more information for customers in an understandable format.

"This is a simple idea which I think will change the way building surveys are carried out in the future."

Peter Fall was president of the RICS from 2002 to 2003. He was also senior partner of leading chartered building surveyors Peter Fall Cowie, which has four offices in the North-East.

He said Eaga Homes had invested in the new technology for the surveys.

His surveyors use tablet computers and digital cameras to record what they find in the home.

The information is then loaded onto the Internet so customers can access it without waiting for days for the report to be written.

Printed copies can also be sent to the client by post.

Mr Fall said: "Traditional property surveys have been full of long, technical words and convoluted descriptions making the whole thing difficult to digest.

"We aim for Insight Home Survey to set the pace for the future of building surveys.

"What you got before was a dry report - this is visual and the customer will be better-informed and in a better position to make a decision."

Eaga Partnership, which employs about 1,200 people in the UK, Canada and India, specialises in energy efficiency and was voted one of the top 100 employers in the UK by The Times last year.

Insight is initially available in the North-East, but there are plans to expand it across the UK.

To find out more, visit www.insighthomesurvey.co.uk