Agencies & People
News covering the businesses, activities, people and personalities in estate agency and letting agency and wider residential property industry.
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Start-up Leicestershire agent faces down online lettings giants with £49 service
The market for online-only lettings agents has a new player but it’s not one of the usual suspects. Rather than another angel-investor backed tech firm with a London dotcom office peppered with snooker tables and latte machines, step forward Leicester-based Harry Albert Lettings & Estates. The company, which is based in the central Belgrave area of the city and also offers an Airbnb-copycat short-term lettings platform, has launched an OpenRent-style service that enables landlords to upload their properties to OnTheMarket, with listings on Zoopla and Rightmove due later. Harry Albert charges £49 for a listing that will last up to six months, the same price as OpenRent’s paid-for three-month service and less expensive than Upad’s Standard £120 service. Breaking the rules “We decided to launch after we saw larger agents routinely breaking the rules, [so] our intention was to operate nationally but being a small company, we felt we were punching above our weight slightly which is why we’ve opted to cover a smaller area for our other services beyond advertise only,” says Managing Director Andrew Hill (pictured, above). “This allows us to provide a more comprehensive and more personal service to our clients.” Andrew also says he hopes…
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Move moves into Gloucester
Cheltenham based Estate and Letting Agent Move has acquired premises in Gloucester to open its second office.
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‘Clumsy’ lettings reforms will persuade more independents to sell, says Martin & Co boss
Franchised lettings giant Martin & Co says the looming lettings reforms announced last weekend is going to make it harder to stay in the game for many agents, and suggests many are considering selling up. The extra red tape, the government announced, will include mandatory training for agents, a compulsory code of conduct, a new regulator and a major overhaul of leasehold ownership. Ian Wilson (left), who is CEO of Martin & Co’s parent company The Property Franchise Group (TPFG), says: “The Government’s announcements at the weekend, although welcome and well-meaning, will probably be clumsily executed. “It’s going to be a lot of work to stay in the lettings game, so potential sellers should think hard about their best option”. TPFG is also helping its franchisees with finance to buy up independent rivals, Ian says, with “a well-oiled machine, and access to cash”. Examples this week of Martin & Co franchisees buying up local independent competition include purchases in Runcorn, Cheshire; Grantham, Lincolnshire; and Horsham, East Sussex. In Runcorn two local Martin & Co franchisees joined forces to buy TCG Residential, whose owner wanted a quick sale so that he could finance a round-the-world motorbike trip. And in Grantham, franchisee…
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All we hear is Radio HaHa
Inspired by ‘Slow Radio’, SpareRoom has launched Radio Haha: a six-hour podcast featuring nothing but the sounds of people laughing. • Radio Haha is designed to highlight the importance of laughter in a happy flatshare • 85% of housemates believe laughter is important for a happy flatshare • 87% of SpareRoom ads that mention laughter have a living room, demonstrating the importance of communal spaces in creating happy houses • Laughter has real health benefits, helping alleviate stressful emotions and drawing people closer together • Radio Haha is available to stream and download, click here It’s said that laughter is the best medicine and that’s especially true when it comes to flatshares. In fact, the overwhelming majority of housemates , 85% (1) believe that laughter is important for a happy flatshare. What’s more, science has shown that laughter can create a positive emotional climate in groups of people. (2) Today, to highlight the importance of laughter in the making of happy house shares, SpareRoom has taken inspiration from the worlds of slow radio and ASMR* by launching Radio Haha: an epic six-hour podcast that consists of nothing but the sounds of people laughing. …when it comes to a house share,…
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Gender pay gap: Savills says women are paid 37% less than men within its UK operation
Savills has become the first UK estate agent to break cover and publish its gender pay gap data under the government’s new reporting requirements. From this year, any organisation with more than 250 employees is required by law to report and publish their gender pay gap data by 5th April each year. Excluding its City trading arm, the median gender pay gap at Savills is currently 37% while the median bonus gap is 69%. And more men than women receive bonuses in the UK – 88% of male employees compared to 80% of female ones. This, CEO Mark Ridley (pictured, left) says, is largely down to the industry’s track record, which has “historically attracted fewer women than men, with the result that there are now more men than women at a senior level”. “Addressing this imbalance is a key focus for Savills UK and we believe that we have made significant progress over the last few years to improve diversity in our business.” One key achievement for the company is its ‘return to work coaching programme’ which has seen the ratio of women returning to Savills after maternity leave increase from 10% to 95% since 2015. Mark also says its…
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Foxtons results reveal tanking profits but confident dismissal of online competitors
Foxtons has revealed its worse full-year results since 2013 including profits before tax which tanked by 65% year-on-year. Its Annual Report and Accounts for 2017 also reveal that revenue decreased by 11.4% and earnings per share by 67%, while its margin dropped to 12.8%, down from over 35% in 2013. That year its profits before tax were £38.9 million, but in 2017 were just £6.5 million. Despite its poor results, both its CEO Nic Budden and CFO Mark Berry received bonuses, although they were lower than in 2016. Budden (pictured, left) was paid a package worth £914,000 last year including a bonus of £218,000 while Berry was paid £490,000 including a bonus of £153,000. Foxtons results document blames the poor performance squarely on its sales operation, which Foxtons says has been battered by the sluggish property markets inside the M25/London area. Sales revenue fell by 23% year-on-year during 2017. This, it says, is largely due to a lack of confidence among buyers and vendors caused by the ongoing Brexit process. But Foxtons also says the 2016 changes to Stamp Duty continue to depress volumes. But unlike most of its competitors, Foxtons continues to focus on developing its own in-house online…
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Purplebricks launches in New York three months ahead of schedule
Purplebricks has launched its platform in New York three months ahead of schedule to catch the city’s Spring market, its US CEO Eric Eckardt has revealed. The company had been due to launch there in June but the pressing need to catch the busiest months of the year meant the operation has been launched just ten weeks after indicating it had the most high-profile and largest city in the US within its sights, and seven months after entering the US market. In January the company set up offices in Midtown Manhattan, its first foray into the crowded jungle that is America’s East Coast property market. Today’s news means Purplebricks is now operating within the world’s largest urban landmass both by area and population. The hybrid agent now has access to a market covering 31 counties, 7.4 million households and 20 million people. “With higher-than-average rates of commission and transaction volumes, New York was the natural first move on the East Coast for Purplebricks,” Chief Executive Michael Bruce (left) said recently. It’s referred to locally as the Tri-State Area, which includes the city of New York, Long Island and the Mid and Lower Hudson Valley but also taking in five nearby…
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Fox & Sons celebrates 150 years
Fox & Sons estate agency celebrates its 150th anniversary with a year of special events.
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Network Auctions partner agents’ £100,000 commission
Network Auctions’ London auction on 22nd February brought the total raised in partner agent commission fees to over £100,000 in the last month...
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People are moving home half as often during their lives than ten years ago, claims Savills
The financial crisis of 2008 still casts a long shadow over the UK property market and that includes a halving in the number of times people move home during their lives, research by Savills has highlighted. Its examination of home moves reveals that the average has dropped from 3.6 times to 1.8 times per family since the crash, a figure that stubbornly refuses to budge. In comments made to the BBC this morning, Savills’ Head of Research Lucian Cook suggests that unless people are enabled to move house more often, there is little point helping first time buyers on to the first rung of the property ladder. The areas where people are moving the most are in Wandsworth, Basingstoke and Deane, Norwich, Rushmoor, Lambeth, Corby, Swindon, Aylesbury Vale, South Norfolk and Bracknell Forest. The destinations where people are staying put the most include Pembrokeshire, Harrow, Ceredigion, Blaenau Gwent, Brent, Wolverhampton, Isle of Anglesey, Sefton, Newham and Redbridge. “Those not trading up are the forgotten people of the housing market,” Lucian Cook told the BBC. Savills categorises housing markets in the UK into three types. These are areas where house prices are stagnant and don’t produce the equity gains people need…
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