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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Fit for a queen: prime London riverside homes at Palace View
Prime London has completed the acquisition of a new 1160 sq ft space at Palace View...
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Why Foxtons’ results are even worse than its competitors
Proptech consultant James Dearsley (pictured, below) says Foxtons’ results revealed recently in its half-year results has been created by the legacy of its once might CRM system called BOS. The results, which were worse than many of its competitors within the struggling London property market, saw sales drop by a third. James says its IT system, created during the early noughties at a cost of £2 million, initially helped create Foxtons’ success by freeing up its talented but famously ruthless staff to concentrate on the sell, automating almost everything else years before most other competitor agents had developed anything similar. James, who used to work at Foxtons, says the company has “developed itself into a corner” by creating a system that no else uses or can plug into, and that while most other agents now use CRM systems that they can ‘plug and play’ the latest innovative products, Foxtons is left with an inward-looking bespoke system and left to play catch-up. A case in point is the lettings maintenance management software Fixflo which James’s company Proptech consult helped integrate into Connells’ and Countrywide’s systems, but which would struggle to be added to Foxtons’. “[This] leaves them at a competitive disadvantage…
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Purplebricks shares drop by 6% following BBC investigation
Shares in hybrid estate agent Purplebricks dropped by nearly 6% following the BBC’s Your and Yours programme in which the company’s CEO Michael Bruce defended claims that it had made misleading claims to customers. Following the programme, which was broadcast at a 12.15pm yesterday on Radio 4, the Purplebricks PLC share price dropped from a high of £4.78p to £3.92p before rallying at 4.38p. Purplebricks’ share price has been dropping since July 24th when it peaked at an all-time high of £5.13p, but today has been one of the more dramatic drops, dipping by 5.77% or 26.9p in one afternoon. On 5th July Purplebricks faced criticism from the Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint from West Sussex estate agent Arun Estates, which had complained to the ASA about ‘fees saved’ case studies on the Purplebricks website which it believed were misleading under ASA advertising codes. The complaint was upheld. During the You & Yours programme presenter Winifred Robinson claimed the hybrid estate agent has been making “exaggerated claims that it’s already been banned from making by the advertising regulator” in emails to existing and potential customers seen by the BBC programme Watchdog. Purplebricks has been censured six times over the…
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Profits jump by 61% at LSL Property Services
Profits at corporate giant LSL Property Services jumped by 61% during the first six months of the year to £14.3m from £8.9M, the company has reported. Unlike many of its PLC rivals including Countrywide and Foxtons, the company maintained turnover at last year’s levels bringing in £151.5m, helped by its lettings business, which increased turnover by 4%. This was boosted by its London prime agency brand Marsh & Parsons which grew its lettings revenue by 8%, although this was offset to by a drop in sales of 4%. But although sales revenues were flat overall, profits within its sales division increased by 37% helped largely by lower marketing costs at Your Move and the sale of a Marsh & Parsons-owned property. The struggling property sales landscape was offset by LSL’s financial services division which grew by 16%, helped by the acquisition of mortgage firm Group First last year. The detail of the report also reveal the changing shape of the estate agency business as the sales market slows down across the UK. LSL’s sales performance is better than most give the uncertainty over Brexit, but LSL is now as much a mortgage broker as it is a sales or letting…
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Connells says sales market picking up as it reveals increased profits
Estate agency group Connells has revealed a ‘stable’ first six month of the year with revenue up by 4% and profits before tax increasing by £200,000 to £31.5 million. Its half year results have been described by the business as “consistently strong” despite the subdued sales market during the opening months of the year, although Connells says it recorded an up-tick in instructions during June and says there is a more positive outlook for the rest of the summer. “We enter the second half of the year with a noticeably higher pipeline compared to last year and, with the imbalance between demand and supply still the key market feature, our outlook for the rest of the year remains positive,” says Group CEO David Livesey (pictured, left). “The noticeable cooling in the market, as a result of uncertainty “Our performance signals Connells Group’s strength in what has undoubtedly been an unsettled marketplace,” surrounding the Brexit negotiations, was further compounded by the snap general election which did little to boost consumer sentiment. Our breadth of business brought resilience, allowed us to gain market share and consolidate our position as the UK’s most profitable estate agency group.” Connells Group says its 4% increase…
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Strutt & Parker bought by French bank
Strutt & Parker, one of the UK’s oldest and most venerable estate agencies has been bought by French bank BNP Paribas. The acquisition, which is still under way, will see BNP Paribas’ UK operation with head quarters off the Marylebone Road in London merge with Strutt & Parker, which is based in Mayfair (pictured, right) and has 60 branches around the UK. Two years ago Strutt & Parker bought two estate agent rivals in Surrey and Berkshire, making it the biggest player in the rural market and third largest in residential. Strutt & Parker was founded in 1885 and operates largely in the London prime markets as well as rural markets including country estates and agricultural where it manages some 1.5 miles acres of land, but also commercial including logistics and offices. The move gives BNP Paribas a presence in almost all of the UK’s property market’s different sectors including development, investment management, property management and residential and commercial sales and lettings. Opportunity for growth Strutt & Parker’s statement about the merger suggest that the company sees its absorption into BNP Paribas as an opportunity for growth, giving it access to the bank’s huge UK and international contacts and client…
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Lest we forget: brilliant surveyor who died at Passchendaele
As the nation remembers the WWI Battle of Passchendaele the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is highlighting several of the 26 property professionals who died during the 11-week offensive outside the Belgian city of Ypres. Hundreds if not thousands of men from the property industry of the time lost their lives on the battlefields of Flanders but Conrad Dinwiddy (pictured, right) stands out as one of the more remarkable characters to die during the battle. Conrad was a surveyor working in Greenwich, SE London for his father but was also a local councillor, journalist, public speaker and before the war had been tipped to be an MP. Even before he joined the army and set out for the trenches in Belgium, he had demonstrated his brilliance and workaholic tendencies. While employed as a Special Constable during the early months of the war he devised a tool to help gunners range-find the Zeppelin airships that were prowling the skies over London, developing and creating his range-finder within a week. Western Front This brought his talents to the attention of the Royal Garrison Artillery and in December 1916 he was sent to the Western Front to work with a 6-inch howitzer battery,…
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Hatched founder joins easyProperty as Head of Operations
Adam Day, the founder of online estate agency Hatched.co.uk has joined easyProperty.com as its Head of Operations, just 15 months after Hatched was bought by Connells. On his Linkedin profile Adam lists himself as “taking a break” in between leaving Hatched earlier this month and joining easyProperty, although in December last year Adam was on a recruitment for more Hatched agents, saying it was an “exciting time to join our business as we continue to build on the successes of previous years”. Adam (pictured, right) has joined easyProperty to set up the systems and procedures that will transform the website from an exclusively consumer-facing operation into the geographically licensed B2B offering that easyProperty CEO Jon Cooke describes as “the convergence of high street agency with online sales and lettings”. And Adam has his work cut out – easyProperty expects to relaunch in September this year. £60m deal with GPEA Adam’s arrival at easyProperty follows the £60m deal between the Guild of Professional Estate Agents and easyProperty to merge earlier this month and that 270-plus GPEA members have signed up so far to be easyProperty licensees out of a potential pool of 800. In return for a fee, easyProperty is licensing…
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Property Ombudsman expels three agents
The Property Ombudsman (TPO) is on track to expel more members this year than in 2016 after three agents were expelled in one go yesterday. Last year TPO kicked out nine agents but six have already been expelled this year following the latest expulsions, with just six months of the year gone. The three agents are Shields & Co in Nottingham, LPC Lettings Ltd in Liverpool and Blackhorse Property Management Ltd in Bradford (all pictured). Two were expelled after failing to pay awards totalling £11,000 to landlords following complaints to the ombudsman that were subsequently upheld. TPO members are required to comply with any award or direction given by the Ombudsman and accepted by the complainants. “It is important to point out that cases like these are extremely rare and concern the actions of a small minority of agents,” says TPO Chairman Jerry Fitzjohn. “Taking into account the vast number of sales and lettings transactions that take place every year, only a small percentage of consumers contact TPO to complain about their agent, and our recent Annual Report reveals an even smaller number are referred to our Disciplinary & Standards Committee.” Shields & Co had failed to pay a landlord…
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Countrywide digital roll-out helps it retain market share
The half-year results for Countrywide reveal it has hung on to market share despite an overall contraction in the UK sales market, helped mainly by the roll-out of its digital ‘low fee’ proposition. Its market share dipped slightly from 5.1% to 4.9% but it increased its slice of the mortgage distribution market. The company also reduced costs by £19 million, helping generate £11.8 million in cash between January and June, up from £1.6 million last year. “We are building a stronger business for our future and remain on track with our goals to broaden our digital capability, reduce our operating cost base and strengthen our balance sheet,” says CEO Alison Platt (pictured, left) “Based on our current performance and the outlook for housing transactions in the UK, we expect our results and our leverage for the full year to be within the range of market expectations.” But like Foxtons which also reavealed half-year results today, the softening sales market helped reduce income at Countrywide by 10% during the first half of the year, and profits are down by 26%. Tough year for Countrywide “As anticipated, the first half of 2017 was tough for the Group compared to the same period…
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