James Dearsley
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Latest property news
Chief of online selling platform hosted by Rightmove hits back against ‘moaners’
Neil Singer of clicktopurchase platform says his deal with Rightmove is misunderstood by worried residential sales agents.
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Crowded house! UK has over 600 proptech firms, new information service claims
Proptech gurus and leading proptech players James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes have launched their global tech hub Unissu.com
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UK proptech “isn’t that innovative” says leading consultant
Leading proptech consultant Eddie Holmes (pictured, below) has told The Negotiator he believes the UK’s proptech sector “isn’t really innovative”, despite the mini-industry often touting itself as a world-beating centre of new ideas and pioneering tech, and containing 10% of the worlds’ proptech firms. “There’s no question that it is a hotbed of activity but whether that activity is innovative or not is a different question,” he said. “Our UK resi market isn’t really innovative, nothing truly game changing by and large.” His comments came as he and his colleague James Dearsley from leading industry consultancy Proptech Consult rubbed shoulders at a global gathering of tech firms from the residential and commercial sectors in Paris organised by MIPIM. Finishing yesterday after an exhausting three days of partying and networking events organised by MIPIM, it transpires only a handful of UK proptech and property figures were at the event including Sammy Pahal (pictured main pic, presenting), MD of the UK PropTech Association, Chris Grigg, CEO of British Land and Michael Ewert from JLL, all of whom also spoke at the jamboree. Dearsley and Holmes also spoke at the conference after revealing their research into the European property industry, which revealed that…
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Countrywide break-up now a possibility, claims former chairman
Former Countrywide chairman Harry Hill has said that he believes an aggressive break-up of the company could now “be a possibility”. The comments came as he hit out at the Alison Platt years, suggesting that the company’s habit of replacing “seasoned professionals” with retail-background management was a mistake. Harry (pictured, left) is also critical of the current non-exec chairman of Countrywide for his lack of property experience. This is Peter Long, who gained much of his track record in the travel industry and who has stepped in to run the company until a replacement is found for Platt. “City reaction has been very muted and most people close to the company appear to think that recruiting a high calibre person will be difficult, and any recovery process will probably [also] be slow and difficult,” he told website Dealmakerz. Although the Countrywide share price has bombed since the New Year falling from £1.35 a share in January to a low of £0.78p earlier this month, its share price has begun a mild recovery. Crunch time? Following early morning trading today it now stands at £0.90p a share. But crunch time for Countrywide is likely to arrive on the 27th April when…
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Proptech experts Dearsley and Holmes invest in Hystreet
Hystreet, the start-up online listings service that enables high street agents to ‘go hybrid’, has signed up leading proptech consultants James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes. The pair, who run Proptech Consult Partners, have invested an undisclosed sum in the business and will now advise the company on how to gain traction for its tech, which enables agents to “compete on a level playing field with online agents”. Hystreet says it has already signed up a significant number of agents including Redditch firm AP Morgan, Leicester-based Kings Real Estate, Evans Roach in Pembrokeshire and Isle of Wight agent Lancasters. The company, which says its software is a way for traditional agents to “fight back against online agents and win back the business of tech-savyy home sellers”, launched in April this year led by CEO Awais Ahmad (pictured, below), whose track record includes time at Barstow Eves and a spell in Berlin as a property developer. He says he brought James Dearsley and Eddie Holmes on board because they share the company’s “vision and ethos” and are “passionate about our industry and share our vision for helping high street agents”. “I’m looking forward to working closely with them both to position our…
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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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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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Proptech expert heavily criticises merger of easyProperty and Guild
Leading proptech consultant James Dearsley (pictured, below) says he doubts the Guild of Property Professionals merger with online agent easyProperty will deliver the result that the two organisations are hoping for. The key plank of his criticism is that EastProperty has yet to gain the market traction needed to prove that it can work, and that therefore the merger deal is an “enormous risk” for the Guild. Last week it was announced that GPEA, the parent company of the Guild and Fine & Country, was to merge with easyProperty backed by £15 million from venture capital firm Toscafund Asset Management LLP. It was said that the deal would provide independent agents with the option to access easyProperty’s fixed-price sales and lettings packages through a monthly brand and technology licence. The deal creates a new structure for the soon-to-be merged businesses which will all be under an umbrella PLC called e-Prop Services, headed up by former GPEA CEO and industry veteran Jon Cooke. The key focus of the new entity, it says, is to offer sales and lettings services to consumers across the entire market including high end via Fine & Country to mass-market budget vendors via easyProperty. Digital transformation In…
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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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Six reasons why Rightmove domination of market could soon end
Rightmove domination of the UK property could be about to end as its faces threats from multiple sources, says leading proptech blogger James Dearsley (pictured, below). He and his colleagues at PropTech Consult have looked at Rightmove and say the company has all the characteristics of a successful company that could lose its market-leading position. The consultants’ report says this includes Rightmove being at the end of its original growth strategy; having a large customer database; and delivering excellent returns for investors, including dividends per share that have risen from 22p in 2012 to 51p today. Needs to act Despite this apparently dazzling success, James says Rightmove now needs to act and start a second period of innovation to prevent its dominant position being eroded in the “medium to long term”. The main reasons for this include: The increasing number of new digital opportunities for agents making them less reliant on Rightmove for leads; Rightmove’s failure to develop new products or services beyond its core search facility; The rise of online agents such as Purplebricks who may become as well-known online as Rightmove; Contracting profitability among high street agents restricting Rightmove’s ability to increase revenue; The rising power of Zoopla and its bid…
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