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Potential property investors interested in signing up for ‘training’ might be able to check out providers on a register later this year.

Some dozen trainers who sell courses promising to lead students to “financial freedom” are said to be interested in signing up to a code of conduct being designed by the Property Investors Bureau.

The industry body says it is in the process of designing an accreditation system which could be launched this year. Whether a voluntary scheme would be enough to satisfy critics of an industry said to be worth millions of pounds and where there are no regulatory teeth, remains to be seen.

The media spotlight has been on free ‘get rich quick’ crash courses which are said to feature high-pressure sales techniques to persuade attendees to pay thousands of pounds for further training.

This week’s BBC’s Inside Out programme went undercover on one crash course, and also featured the family of a man who committed suicide after taking out debt to attend a course.

Currently ‘property training’ courses are not regulated or supervised.

A petition, drawn up by the late Danny Butcher’s father, is calling for regulation and also for property trainers to demonstrate that they have been successful with their own long-term property portfolios. Yesterday, the petition had over 750 signatures.