The inaugural meeting of all the founder and regional members of the Charter for Independent Estate Agents (CIELA) is taking place in the Oxfordshire town of Bicester today.

The organisation says the meeting will be a forum discuss how independent agents can unite their “potential firepower” and unite their resources and data to create a force greater than any “corporate in the industry”.

Independent agents

CIELA clearly thinks one failing of independent agents is that they do not share their data in the same way corporate branch networks do.

David Butler (pictured, left), CEO of software firm ResiAnalytics and a former senior team member at both the Hometrack and CBRE, is to speak to them today to explain the power of the “combined data that independents currently hold between them, but do not currently use”, the organisation says.

CIELA, which has been formed to represent the collective voice of independents and also communicate to the public what independents “actually do”.

It has been busy in recent weeks. It’s website has been updated and it has hired a PR team that in the past has worked with Zoopla and Tepilo.

CIELA, which was founded by tech firm owner Charlile Wright, is now being led by a founder team of 11 agents from around the UK and is due to formally launch on 1st October this year.

Today’s proceedings in Oxfordshire will be filmed and the footage uploaded to the CEILA website afterwards. The organisation is currently offering a six-month pre-launch membership of £35 a month plus VAT.