In the ever-evolving world of property transactions, staying ahead of the curve is essential and few companies have pioneered change as dynamically as Iamproperty.

Since it launched its online property auction platform in 2009, the firm has been on a growth trajectory, expanding its services into the private treaty space with a mission to facilitate all types of property sales from prospecting through to completion.

With now north of 700 people across the business and latest revenue figures standing at £76m, up 39% on the previous year, there seems to be no stopping Iamproperty.

Property innovation

Announced in summer 2023, Iamproperty’s ‘ecosystem vision’ strategy is designed to give their 6,000 estate agency clients access to all the digital services they need to source and facilitate property sales in one place.

In the last 18-months alone, that vision has really taken shape with a sharp focus on product innovation, acquisitions, and service expansion.

This included the acquisition of a CRM platform and the firm’s first foray into lead generation, which saw the launch of the Marketing Toolkit, with 300 agents fully onboarded and another 300 registered.

The focus now is going full throttle on additional product development.”

“The focus now is going full throttle on additional product development and then combatting the challenge of stitching that altogether seamlessly in one intuitive platform,” says Ben Ridgway, Co-founder of Iamproperty.

He adds: “We are under no illusion that this is a fairly ambitious goal to deliver, but a lot of work is going into working out how we can reconcile datasets from all the different platforms and stacking them on top of each other to drive unique insight and essentially, help agents win more deals and save more time.”

Its brand new Premium Conveyancing service is already seeing positive results for agents too, achieving an 91-day average completion timeframe compared to the 120-day national average, and just a 7% fall-through rate compared to the standard 1 in 4.

“I think what is more impressive for me is the client satisfaction rate of over 90%,” adds Ben. “The one set of people that vendors love to hate more than estate agents is usually conveyancers, so to achieve that level of satisfaction is proof that we did what we said on the tin, which was to get transactions through faster and with less hassle.

“And it’s not magic. It is simply that better preparation provides better performance.”

Riding the AI wave

Iamproperty is also embracing artificial intelligence to drive efficiencies. “AI is still in its early stages in the property sector in terms of practical application, but we’re already developing some exciting AI workstreams,” says Neil Hope, Chief Transformation Officer.

As well as using AI to read title deeds to flag potential issues and proactively provide responses to potential covenant or restriction queries, a particularly intriguing development is the use of predictive analytics to identify potential movers.

Neil adds: “We’re working on a system that uses AI and data modelling to help agents target homeowners who are likely to list their property soon. This kind of insight can be invaluable for agents looking to get ahead of the competition and aligns with our goal to enhance the lead generation side of things.”

Ben believes voice AI will have a role soon too, commenting: “We have been playing around with Voice AI for a while and what’s really incredible is that I don’t mind talking to it now, compared to just six months go.

“There are certainly opportunities for it to replace low level tasks, but how positively this will impact the property sector is yet to be seen. It’s definitely coming, but it could have a seismic impact or land like a damp squib.”

People before proptech

But as the property industry grapples with ongoing innovations in tech, Iamproperty remain committed to using it to enhance efficiencies rather than replace people.

“Most agents are people-people, and a lot of them don’t enjoy or want to do the mundane admin, and will admit to not doing it well either,” says Jamie Cooke, Co-founder. “We want to help them do that side of things well through the right systems and partnerships so they can do the bit they enjoy better.”

There are also challenges that only a people-led service can support, explains Ben.

“Cost is always going to be key for agents, and a lot of overheads can be reduced and tasks streamlined with an intuitive tech-stack,” says Ben. “But our ecosystem isn’t just about technology. It’s about service. We have a team of 700+ specialists who support agents and their clients at every stage of the transaction. That’s what sets us apart from other so-called ecosystem providers.”

Fresh faces

Moving forward, the team is only set to grow, with 100+ new hires planned over the next year across all divisions.

In the last 18 months, around 250 people have joined Iamproperty, including former eBay and MoneySupermarket boss, Mark Lewis as Chairman.

“He’s been a really great addition to the business,” says Jamie. “With such an impressive backstory, he’s really helped us with some of our strategic thinking and the direction of travel, which has been been a lot of fun.”

Of course, this recruitment drive followed the big news that Lloyds Development Capital was exiting and the subsequent nine-figure cash injection from private equity firm, Perwyn.

Although Iamproperty still refuses to disclose the exact amount, they are more than happy with their support, as Jamie explains: “They’ve been incredibly supportive over the last 18 months since their investment. They backed our plan completely, which is focused on growth through delivering the transformation into the ecosystem, and we are well on track to achieve that.”

Back to the gavel

Auction is of course a major part of Iamproperty’s heritage and remains a core area for growth too. Last year they announced they had facilitated 1% of all property transactions in the UK, a milestone that coincided with its 15^th year and underscores the increasing adoption of modern auction methods.

Jamie comments: “We estimate that auctions could ultimately account for over 10% of all UK property transactions and we’ve made significant inroads in penetrating that market share, but there’s still work to do in shifting perceptions around the types of properties that can be sold at auction.

Some of our agent network are striving in that space, auctioning 10% of their stock or even in the mid-teens.”

“Some of our agent network are striving in that space, auctioning 10% of their stock or even in the mid-teens. So it’s about supporting our clients to provide the choice of certainty, speed, and transparency in the right way at the right time.”

Around two-thirds of Iamproperty’s agent network use them for online auction services, with one-third adopting multiple services in the ever-growing digital ecosystem. It will be interesting to see how this split evolves alongside the product innovations.