An estate agent in Manchester says it is gaining up to 20% more views on its Rightmove-listed properties since the company began using specialist photo editing software.

Nine-branch Manchester agent Thornley Groves says the recently-launched technology, which makes properties sparkle even if snapped on a miserable day, on a mobile phone or just by an inexperienced photographer, helps it sell 1,000 properties a year and let a further 2,000 a year in North, South and Central Manchester.

“It makes sense. If something’s more attractive, you’re more likely to click,” says Matt Smith, Residential Sales and Lettings Director at Thornley Groves (pictured, below)

“As well as the £1,000,000+ houses in Cheshire, we’ve got plenty of two-bed apartments in the city centre, which deserve to be advertised with the same level of quality,”.

Matt and 120-strong team use KeyAgent’s PropertyBOX technology to process all of their properties for sale and to let and, says Matt, the number of properties they have to revisit to shoot new photos is at “an all-time low”.

Mr Blue Sky

PropertyBox automatically processes images adding blue skies and green grass and other improvements where necessary, and can also turn hand-drawn layout sketches into fully-fledged floorplans. KeyAgent says some 2.5 million photos are already being processed by PropertyBox every year.

“Thornley Groves is a case in point for why we developed PropertyBOX: to improve agents’ day-to-day lives and help them focus on selling and letting houses,” says Tim Wright of KeyAgent.

“When the Negotiators at Thornley Groves don’t use a professional photographer, PropertyBOX is there to bridge the gap.”

Thornley Groves was bought by private rental sector investment firm Lomond Capital in 2013, and since then an extra branch has been added and its team increased from 80 to 120 and the number of properties it manages almost doubled from 1,600 to 3,000.