Proptech
News focusing on new technological solutions which create efficiencies and cost-savings for estate and letting agents and the wider residential property industry.
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Proptech firm launches Facebook style app for apartment blocks
A German proptech company has launched a digital property management platform that claims to be the first in the world to enable property managers and apartment block residents to communicate directly in real time with, and among, each other. It’s a bit like a Facebook group and enables everyone to communicate, chat-style, with each other including the block’s property manager, in real time. Co-founder Bruno Acar (pictured, below) says it’s different from existing property management software tools, which tend to be aimed at agents. He says that instead his platform is designed to be used by the whole community within a block. HomeBeat.Live is an app as well as a desktop platform and residents can use it to talk to each other, as well as tell the building’s property manager about service and maintenance issues. It will also make apartment blocks more social as residents can chat to each other too. “Structurally it’s also a better approach because that way data and platform remain part of the building regardless of any change in service provider,” says Bruno. Other advantages of the platform are that it enables property managers to update all the residents in an apartment block about issues such…
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Interview: the Knight Frank executive who went ‘proptech’
A proptech start-up called OneDome that offers agents the tools to book viewings online has won over £3 million in funding from several backers including Sir Nigel Knowles, the founder of legal firm DLA Piper. The company has also persuaded one of Knight Frank’s senior people to jump ship. Rachel Dipper, who until June was Head of Residential Marketing at Knight Frank, is now heading up OneDome’s promotional effort as Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships. The company also has a former Skype employee leading its technology build and one of its co-founders is former JP Morgan executive, Babek Ismayil (both pictured front row, above). “We offer agents the ability to take on the online disrupters and offer online bookings, without having to partner with another brand,” says Rachel (pictured, left). The company, which has been going about a year and has 12 staff in London and a further 40 in Ukraine, has signed up Essex agent Yaxley Homes to its service and says it has a further 15 agents getting ready to join as well. OneDome offers a platform that enables agents to drive sales and vendor enquiries to their own website, earn referral fees for conveyancing and mortgage enquiries,…
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Virtual Reality property tours launched in Wales
Alexanders reports that it is the first estate agency in Ceredigion/Powys to introduce Virtual Reality Property Tours.
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Humberts launches first dual online and high street lettings service
Humberts has launched the UK’s first switchable online-only and traditional managed lettings service for landlords. The announcement comes five months after the company said it would be relaunching its lettings operation headed up by high-profile industry executive Suzanne Diamond (pictured, below). The new online offering is called Humberts Lettings Direct and will charge landlords £199 plus VAT for advertising on Rightmove and OTM as well as deposit and first-month rent collection, referencing, contract management and legal protection insurance. Humberts says the £199 will then be deducted from any fees charged should a landlord then switch to the traditional approach. But rather than the company build its own technology, 175-year-old Humberts is partnering with proptech start-up Propoly. Propoly started up three years ago as Nanoget before changing name and joining angel investment firm Pi Labs, initially presenting itself as an alternative to lettings agents for landlords and tenants. The company’s board includes non-executive director Margaret Longden (pictured, right), who is Countrywide’s Retail Programme Director and who, from 2010 onwards, helped expand the PLC’s lettings business. Also, Countrywide holds 366,034 Series A shares in Propoly. White label technology Humberts is using a white-labelled version of Propoly’s technology, which is essentially a messaging platform…
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Hundreds of agents go back to ZPG
ZPG, owner of Zoopla and PrimeLocation, reports that over 800 estate agency branches have left Onthemarket (OTM) to re-join ZPG over the past two years.
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Is this the end of physical property viewings?
Immersive media technology company Matterport, has announced a partnership with Google, enabling the publication of Matterport content to Google Street View.
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New proptech consultancy launches, with familiar names
PropTech specialists, James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes, have launched www.proptechconsult.com to help property companies overcome the challenges brought by digital transformation.
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Former Foxtons agent launches rental app for sharers
A proptech company has launched in London offering a rental app for house hunting couples and sharers and an assisted property finder service. Called The Urban Collective, its unusual service is focussed initially on the London rental market but says it will soon expand beyond the capital to other cities and areas of the UK. The company’s founders, who include a couple with a background in Fintech and a former Foxtons lettings agent, say research suggests a third of house hunters who look for property as a group or a couple find the process much more painful than when doing it alone. The Urban Collective decided to create the UrbanCo app for the Apple’s IOS platform. It enables couples or groups to chat, comment and share links, images, videos and viewings feedback – based on the app’s own listings. Unlike traditional portal-style listings, the company says, its properties will be searchable by lifestyle options as well as price and location – such as proximity to gyms or tube stations. Sherpa service And for the wealthier end of the lettings market who are cash rich but time poor, The Urban Collective has launched a ‘Sherpa’ service. For a fee, wannabe tenants are put…
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The chat bot that thinks it can do property management
An app that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to deal with the property management queries that can drain an agent’s resources is going through its paces with 20 property firms including Savills and JLL, The Negotiator can reveal. Called AskPorter, the mobile-phone based app answers the day-to-day questions that property managers get asked using a chat bot. It also uses a digital ticketing system to assign maintenance and emergency queries directly to the relevant professionals such as electricians or plumbers without the need for human intervention. The chat bot is connected to an AI brain that has been taught to understand the different queries and syntax that tenants use, and then use this to work out if they need just information or physical help. For example, if a tenant asks “when is my rent due?” or “can I have pets?”, then AskPorter can answer these questions on the spot. But if a tenant reports a leaking tap or broken lock then they are put in touch with an approved plumber or locksmith immediately via the messaging service, with whom tenants can share pictures of the problem. Co-founded by Tom Shrive and Sam Tassell, AskPorter is being funded by venture capital firm…
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Hundreds of agents sign up to be easyProperty licensees, says Jon Cooke
EasyProperty has come out fighting following criticism of its merger with The Guild of Property Professionals last week, revealing that there has been “strong” take-up among the industry for its new territorial licensing system. Jon Cooke (pictured, below), the CEO of both easyProperty and the merged company’s parent group e-Prop Services, also says that he is receiving enquiries from non-members of the Guild but, while it currently only available to Guild menbers, it not a “compulsory” add-on and instead an “option” for members. Following criticism by leading proptech expert James Dearsley and industry veteran Ed Mead last week in which they questioned the merger’s likely success and highlighted its weaknesses, Jon says easyProperty has received 500 territory requests from Guild members including many from a sales roadshow that has been under way since June 14th. He says letters of intent were sent to all the agents who attended the three-hour roadshows and that a third of them signed and returned them. The roadshows have been conducted across the including in Coventry, London, Tunbridge Wells, Southampton, Exeter, Bristol, Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle and East Anglia. “There has been a lot of industry speculation from naysayers who seem to have a louder voice…
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