Uncategorised
-
Foxtons founder sells flats through former rival
If you’re wondering what Foxtons founder Jon Hunt has been doing with the £375 million fortune he amassed after he sold the estate agent to venture capital firm BC Ventures ten years ago, then the answer is – property development. Jon is currently selling a plot of land in Vauxhall, London that his property company Ocubis, which he owns through his development business Heven, recently gained planning permission for. But rather than sell it through his old firm the development site, which is near the MI5 building at 34-36 Albert Embankment (pictured), is being sold by one of his former rivals in the sales market, Strutt & Parker, it has been reported. Valued for sale at £50 million, the development is to include 166 apartments within two 25-storey towers but also include office and commercial units. Planning development The London Borough of Lambeth has granted detailed planning permission for the development, which will replace both a careworn Texaco garage and one of the Albert Embankment’s last Victorian warehouses, Vintage House. As well as the two residential towers, the site will eventually include 22,000 sq ft of commercial space and 1,500 sq ft of retail, including a café. The warehouse is…
Read More » -
OnTheMarket agents vote overwhelmingly to demutualise and float
OnTheMarket is to demutualise and float on the stock market following a vote by its agent members. It is also to drop its controversial ‘one other portal rule’ and will now attempt to raise £50m from City investors. Nearly 90% of agent members of the website’s operator Agents’ Mutual voted to convert their existing membership interests into shares in a new company called OnTheMarket Ltd. Agents’ Mutual says 70% of members voted in person at the meeting in London yesterday or by proxy. After the vote is approved by a court hearing early week the demutualisation will then proceed on 12th September, and following an initial IPO on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) it is expected that some £50m will be raised by offering investors a minority stake in the new business. Advertising campaign This will value OnTheMarket at between £200 and £250 million. The money raise is to be used to take on Rightmove and Zoopla with a huge national advertising campaign on TV, digital and print media as well as significant radio and billboard activity. “I am very pleased at such a resounding demonstration of broad Member support for our strategic proposals for the business,” says Ian Springett,…
Read More » -
easyProperty claims to be largest Purplebricks rival following relaunch
EasyProperty has relaunched its business following the merger with the Guild of Property Professionals and now claims to be the second largest hybrid agent in the UK after Purplebricks. The company has also finished merging its lead generation, sales progression and negotiation platform with the Guild. Now, vendors who enquire via the new easyProperty website will be funnelled through to the relevant local property expert, who will be a dedicated member of staff from the local licensee’s high street branch. Easyproperty says this way there will be a clear difference between a licensee’s high street brand and the easyProperty hybrid offering, unlike Countrywide’s approach of offering both services locally on the same website. So far easyProperty says it has 333 signed-up licensees and 368 consumer-facing local property professionals who are currently undergoing training with former Hatched founder Adam Day. “Today is when we move to delivery our product to the consumer after three months of work,” says easyProperty Chief Executive Jon Cooke. “Consumer behaviour is changing and we are adapting to what [they] want – for us, it’s all about technology and people.” EasyProperty has also revealed a new structure with private equity and banking specialist Mark Phillips appointed as…
Read More » -
Rents still under pressure
UK Rents fell again in June, new data from the HomeLet Rental Index reveals, with the typical new agreed rent 0.3% lower than in June 2016.
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
ZPG says its vendor leads have surged by a third
ZPG has revealed that the number of vendor leads it has passed on to its agent customers has increased by a third just days after OnTheMarket announced it is to raise £50 via a flotation on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM. The company, which operates Zoopla and PrimeLocation, the UK’s second and third largest property portals in the UK by the number of agents listed on its sites and traffic, says it has so far sent 300,000 vendor leads and over 13.7 million applicant leads to its members so far this year. This, ZPG claims, has created fees for its member agents worth £225m. But although the company claims the pick-up is largely down to its online home valuation tools, the increase in vendor leads is also an early signal that the UK sales market may be picking up. Leads from vendors seeking an agent to sell their home increased by 31% compared to the first six months of last year, ZPG says. “[ZPG] continues to generate more appraisal leads than any other website as a result of [our] unique valuation tools,” says Mark Goddard, Managing Director of ZPG’s Property division. “We continue to deliver the best value and most…
Read More » -
Purplebricks shares drop by 6% following BBC investigation
Shares in hybrid estate agent Purplebricks dropped by nearly 6% following the BBC’s Your and Yours programme in which the company’s CEO Michael Bruce defended claims that it had made misleading claims to customers. Following the programme, which was broadcast at a 12.15pm yesterday on Radio 4, the Purplebricks PLC share price dropped from a high of £4.78p to £3.92p before rallying at 4.38p. Purplebricks’ share price has been dropping since July 24th when it peaked at an all-time high of £5.13p, but today has been one of the more dramatic drops, dipping by 5.77% or 26.9p in one afternoon. On 5th July Purplebricks faced criticism from the Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint from West Sussex estate agent Arun Estates, which had complained to the ASA about ‘fees saved’ case studies on the Purplebricks website which it believed were misleading under ASA advertising codes. The complaint was upheld. During the You & Yours programme presenter Winifred Robinson claimed the hybrid estate agent has been making “exaggerated claims that it’s already been banned from making by the advertising regulator” in emails to existing and potential customers seen by the BBC programme Watchdog. Purplebricks has been censured six times over the…
Read More » -
Rightmove revenue per agent rises by 10%, latest results show
The latest Rightmove results reveal that it has increased how much it receives in revenue from each agent every month by 10% year on year from £789 to £865. It also says it has seen a 1% increase in the number of agencies listing with the portal, in part due to the number of Purplebricks Local Property Experts listing on the site as ‘branch equivalents’. Rightmove says the price rise has come from an increase in prices and agents signing up to additional services, in particular its Optimiser product which helps an agent’s properties stand out more in their local area. Some 2,000 member agents have signed up to the service thus far, up from 1,000 a year ago, and Rightmove says agents who sign up to the package spend a minimum of £1,500 a month compared to the £780 average revenue per agent spent by non-Optimiser agents. Reporting on risks and uncertainties in the coming months within the UK housing market, Rightmove paints a relatively gloomy picture. It highlights how housing transactions were down 8% during the first six months of the year compared to last year, although it points out that transaction are up compared to the same period…
Read More » -
How to turn staff mugshots into great PR
People make snap judgements, says PR man Jerry Lyons – so it’s really important to make the right impression with a great photo.
Read More » -
Scarborough landlord licensing scheme launched
Town is latest of over 35 selective licensing schemes to be introduced over past two years.
Read More »
