Marketing
News covering the marketing of residential property, lead generation, buying and selling and business development.
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LonRes launches commission sharing site for new build agents
Commission-sharing and property data platform LonRes has launched a service to enable agents who sell new-build property in London to commission share with other agents, it has been revealed. Called ResDev, LonRes says the service will help agents tap into London’s burgeoning new homes market, which last year saw 16,230 new homes built. “With access to a network of properties and potential commission splits, ResDev is a natural extension of the LonRes system,” says says Lonres co-founder Anthony Payne (pictured, left). “Just as LonRes transformed the way in which London agents worked together, ResDev promises to do the same for the new build sector.” The ambitious building efforts of London’s developers, who are finishing projects such as the mixed-used redevelopment of Battersea Power Station started when the London market was over-heating, make it the ideal time to launch the ResDev. LonRes says the numbers of new homes coming to the market is up 53% compared to five years ago. Such extraordinary growth compares with the struggling general sales market in London, within which the number of homes sold has dropped by approximately a quarter year on year. LonRes say its new service will offer agents selling new build properties access…
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Revealed: how TrustPilot’s review verification system really works
Details of how TrustPilot enables estate agents to verify and manage customer reviews have been revealed follow a complaint about Purplebricks from one of its customers. Brighton-based lifestyle blogger Laura Tells (pictured, left) posted a low rating of Purplebricks on Trustpilot recently after receiving zero viewings for her flat. Soon after posting her review Laura was contacted by TrustPilot to say that it had been taken down because “Purplebricks has reported the review because they don’t believe you’ve had a genuine buying or service experience”. Laura was then told that to have her review put live again she’d have to provide her proof of service with Purplebricks. A protracted debate ensued on Twitter between Laura and Trustpilot, during which several traditional agents weighed in to demand the review site clarify how their ratings management process works, but largely to no avail. Company guidelines The Negotiator has contacted TrustPilot for a response. It says that, following the Twitter exchange, it has contacted Purplebricks to “clarify” its usage of the term ‘verified’ and to “make sure they comply with our company guidelines,” says spokesman Alexander Tolstrup. “Companies should not refer to unverified Trustpilot reviews as verified even if the company have done…
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Landlords and tenants get free £10 Uber ride
A landlord services company that manages over £500m worth of property on behalf of clients has struck a deal with Uber to give its landlords and tenants a free taxi ride worth £10. The Happy Tenant Company, which is unusual becomes it manages properties and tenants on behalf of landlords but uses approved lettings agents just for ‘tenant finding’, says the deal will also raise money for charity Make a Wish UK. When anyone signs up for the first time to join Uber – existing customers are excluded – they will be given £10 of free credit on their account if they use the voucher code ‘HAPPY TENANT and £5 will be donated to Make a Wish UK. The Uber deal echoes The Happy Tenant Company’s business model, which is to use its group buying power to gain bulk discounts for services to landlords such as tenant finding, maintenance and inventory services and then pass them directly to their customers. “We’ve focused on delivering more than just property management, by using our size to secure discounts across a range of service suppliers to help our landlord and tenant clients; something which experience has shown us is the key to harnessing good…
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Student lets portal emerges as serious challenger to Zoopla and Rightmove
A website that claims to be the next Zoopla or Rightmove of student lets has won a place in the Top 100 UK start-ups list, joining famous businesses on the AXA insurance-sponsored list such as Deliveroo and notonthehighstreet.com. Founded three years ago but launched in October 2016 the Cardiff-based property portal offers a single platform for students to search for properties in 25 cities and enables them to contact agents directly to arrange viewings. University Cribs says it is planning to have student lets available in all the UK’s 64 student cities before the start of this year’s academic year in September. It also says University Cribs has 120 agent clients across the UK just seven months after launching and 150,000 followers via its social media accounts including 139,220 on Facebook. The company also says it has 122,172 rooms to rent advertised on its www.universitycribs.co.uk site and an audience of over seven million mostly 18-24 year olds through its social media reach. Student lets What’s most notable about the company is the youth of its founders and team. The trio who started up the company – Daniel Jeffreys, Jack Jenkins and Christian Samuel (pictured, left to right) are all under…
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Rental auctions software proptech firm launches to help agents see off Rentberry threat
A start-up proptech firm that enables tenants to bid via rental auctions for properties on letting agents’ websites is about to launch into the London market. Founder Spencer Rose (pictured, below) says LetsBid4Lets.com’s software will help agents market properties directly through their own websites rather than relying on the big portals for leads. “The software is built, but we are looking to raise funding from investors to pay for marketing activity to attract tenants to the websites of the agents who sign up with us,” he says. eBay-style bidding For a fee the company will supply letting agents with white-label auction software to market their rental properties through an eBay-style bidding process. During the auctions tenants will be invited to bid for properties and, if they win, secure them for an agreed rental period. Spencer, who has a property development background from his time at investment firm Palmhurst Group, says tenants using the site will be pre-referenced by FCC Paragon before being allowed to bid. “These references will last for 60 days so if a tenant doesn’t win on one property then they will be able to use the same reference to bid on another, which will be a first…
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ZPG buys share in Dubai-based Propertyfinder portal
ZPG has made a surprise investment in Dubai-based property portal owner Propertyfinder Group (PFG) for an undisclosed sum, giving it a door into the global property market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. PFG is a parent company of seven property websites across the region including the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. PFG was started up in 2005 by US businessman Michael Lahyani (pictured, left) and through both acquisition and growth was recently valued at $200 million following a $20m investment by a Bermuda-based but Russian company called Vostock. The deal, which was announced last year, was described by Lahyani at the time as enabling the company to become the biggest online real estate “destination” in the MENA region. But although Lahyani describes himself as the founder, PFG’s UAE website was originally 51%-owned by Australia’s REA Group before being sold off when the company pulled out of what had been early attempts at a global property portal empire. Lahyani started a magazine in Dubai called Al Bab World which was later bought by REA and then turned into the Propertyfinder.ae website. At the time during the mid-to-late noughties the REA network included sites in Italy,…
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Over 800 OnTheMarket agents have returned to ZPG, says Goddard
ZPG has today claimed that 808 branches have returned to its portals over the past two years from rival OnTheMarket.com since Agents Mutual launched it in 2015. And ZPG senior figure Mark Goddard (pictured, left), who heads up its Property Services division, has gone on the attack, saying that agents who spend their marketing budgets on OnTheMarket are doing so “inefficiently”. Recent returnees include 16 agency branches which ZPG says have moved over during the past week, helping increase its returning total by 58 since it last reported on its attempt to persuade agents back from OnTheMarket. This was within its 24th May half-year results. “We do not comment on individual agent relationships but the facts remain the same as they did last week when Zoopla gave a similar update,” says Ian Springett, Chief Executive of Agents’ Mutual (pictured, right). “OnTheMarket.com continues to have a positive material impact on the property portals landscape.” “Many thousands of agents switched from Zoopla/Primelocation to join us. Many thousands of agents continue to support the objectives of the business by creating a genuine alternative portal for consumers and agents alike. Many thousands of agents have not returned to ZPG portals with their advertising budgets…
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Rightmove chairman sells shares worth £4.23m
Rightmove chairman Scott Forbes (pictured, right) has sold shares in the company worth £4.23 million, taking advantage of a recent spike in its share price. It has jumped in value by £2 to £43.63 or five percent since the 19th May, valuing the portal at £4.03 billion. Scott sold 100,000 of his shares yesterday at the peak of the current surge, which eased off today. This leaves him with 219,000 shares in the company worth £9.3 million. This is not the first time that Scott has cashed in his Rightmove shares. In 2007, just two years after joining the company from worldwide property services company Cendant, he sold shares worth £7 million to finance a home purchase in Kensington and in 2012 shares worth £4 million. Constant growth He joined Rightmove and was appointed to its board in 2005 and has overseen almost constant share price (see graph, right) and business growth at the PLC. This includes last year, which its most recent figures show saw revenue and profits that both jumped by 15% compared to 2015, and total dividend payments that grew by 19%. Agents listing on Rightmove currently spend £832 a month and the website has 20,121 branches…
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New property portal partners with US franchise network
A property portal that claims to be making the first steps towards being a global version of Rightmove says it has made a key strategic move to achieve its goal. The World Property Network (TWPN) has struck a deal with billion-dollar US franchise network Realty World that will see the two businesses join forces and together offer three million properties across the world. Realty World has been around since 1973 and has 400 offices worldwide while TWPN launched in September last year with a TV channel, website and several full-page adverts in the Sunday Times. Property portal The deal between TWPN and Realty World will go live in two or three months and will, TWPN claims, make the partnership a “powerful and influential new force on the international property stage”. It also says the combined forces of the partnership will be a disruptor in the global property marketing market. In the UK TWPN’s main rivals are the Rightmove Overseas and A Place in the Sun websites but internationally, TWPN founder Peter Mansfield says the partnership – which joins his website’s European and other properties with Realty World’s North, Central and South American as well as Caribbean inventories, will be a…
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ZPG reveals record growth, 750 returning agents plus lettings and mortgage launches
ZPG has reported record results in its half year results for the six months ended 31st March. This includes revenues up by 22% to £117.9 million, and profits that have increased by £25 million. The company also says it has seen “accelerated win backs” from OnTheMarket.com and that over the past two years the number of agents returning to the fold now totals totals 750. Over the past six months ZPG has also grown its branches list by 6% to 14,271 and its inventory by 9% to 928,000 listings. This caps a busy year for the company which has been expanding its vertical integration through the industry with the acquisition of data firm Hometrack, which ZPG say now services 17 out of the top 20 banks, and agent software outfit ExpertAgent. But these acquisitions have cost it dearly – debt at ZPG is now £209.3 million, borrowing which has also reduced its profits for the six month period. Mortgages ZPG has also revealed that it now has a mortgages team, part of a plan to expand its presence in the home financial services market. Traffic to its website and apps grew by 5% to 314 million visits and the company also…
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