A marketing consultant who works with estate agents including Knight Frank and EXP UK has launched an AI-enabled property search app that focuses on helping buyers navigate the whole process.

Drifthome is not seeking to overturn property search – co-founder Cassandra Humbert admits the big portals have good inventory and ‘pretty good’ search filters.

“The big problem that we’re seeking to solve is that house hunters largely don’t know what they are doing, don’t understand [or have forgotten] how the process works and how to get or renew a mortgage – and his is why fall-through rates are so high,” she says. “70% of fall-throughs are the buyer’s fault.”

“The big portals are not trying to target that problem – we are.”

Humbert has spent the past seven months creating Drifthome which matches house hunters with ideal properties, but also enables agents to find buyers for properties they are marketing too and message buyers via the app.

“We want to put estate agents back in control,” she tells The Neg.

The founder story for Drifthome is unusual – Humbert met her life and business partner Edward Boyd after he was involved in a serious cycling accident and the pair met during his recuperation in hospital. The couple are now engaged to be married.

Big  challenge

Although the business is at an early stage, Humbert has her eyes on the future, saying that platforms like Drifthome will eventually give the big UK property portals a run for their money.

“Whether it’s us or one of the other AI-driven property search apps and platforms, I think Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket will eventually be overtaken,” she adds.

Humbert says these portals will have to largely retool their business model and tech in order to survive, and at the time of writing Rightmove has revealed its new AI-based approach.

“The property market is one of the last trillion-pound sectors to be fully digitalised and move into the 21^st century,” says Humbert. “So let’s see what happens.”