online only agents
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Latest property news
UK’s ‘largest letting agent by listings’ OpenRent raises £4.4m from VC firm
OpenRent, the online-only company that claims to be the largest letting agent in the UK, has secured £4.4 million in funding from a Berlin-based venture capital firm. Global Founder’s Capital, the venture arm of Rocket Internet, is the second organisation to invest in the business since 2014 when Express Newspapers and OK! Magazine owner Northern & Shell gave OpenRent an advertising deal in return for equity in the company. OpenRent has 4,237 properties on its own website but also advertises on Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation and operates a low-fee basic model that’s free for landlords to use the first time, and then after that £29 for a basic package and £49 for a premium one, which includes tenant referencing, contract drafting, deposit registration and collection of rent. STANDALONE SERVICES The company then also sells standalone services including referencing, gas safety certificate and electrical safety checks, energy performance certificates, inventory services and photos and floor plans. OpenRent says it has 640,627 registered landlords and tenants on its books, promotes itself as the “service high street agents don’t want you to know about” and says it advertised 50,000 properties last year, although it does not reveal how many of these it rented. The…
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Latest property news
New proptech startup will ‘uberise’ market, claim founders
An app created by a Darlington-based proptech company that enables sales and letting agents to compete with online-only and hybrid competitors has been launched. The Muves app, which is the brainchild of developer Olly Lawson and former agent Matthew Whatt, has been launched in the North East but, the pair say, their aim is to launch it nationally. Proptech pioneers Whatt and Lawson make ambitious claims for the app, which they claim will ‘uberise’ the property market by enabling agents to set up their own online-only agency in addition to their existing high-street operation. The customisable app enables vendors and landlords to be offered a no frills service by an agent. Like the many online-only and hybrid sales and letting agents that have started up in recent years, Muves enables an agent’s vendors and landlords to upload their own pictures and property descriptions to the platform and organise viewings, while gaining access to a listing on the main portals. The app offers vendors and landlords a photography guide, automated property valuation tool, inventory creator, viewing calendar, viewing feedback tool and marketing support while there’s also a CRM system for the agent to manage the data. Muves already has its first customer,…
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Latest property news
Are the online-only agents gaining traction?
After reading the criticism of online-only agents by their traditional counterparts on Twitter it’s clear that much of the industry dislikes and fears the way these digital ‘disruptors’ do business. High profile operators such as Purplebricks, Easyproperty, emoov and House Network regularly feature in the national press and, helped by their extensive PR outfits, are hard at work persuading the public that online-only agents are the future. Research by The Negotiator into the market reveals a different picture. The online-only agents have a fair way to go yet before they can claim to be a major threat to traditional agents, industry data reveals. With the exception of hybrids (i.e. staffed but without high street branches) such as Purplebricks and YOPA, they have yet to gain a significant foothold in the market. There are 21,925 properties currently listed on Rightmove by online or hybrid agents which is 4.03% of the market based on Rightmove’s current listing of 543,612 (minus the online agents). Purplebricks dominates the online sector with 44% of all listed properties listed followed by HouseSimple (12%), emoov (9.8%) and Easyproperty (7.2%), Housenetwork (6.4%) and YOPA (5.5%). Most of the smaller online agents including recently-launch Settled, which lists 316 properties for sale, have the same inventory of a five to…
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