WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 22/04/2022
A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X
Table of Contents
- Leading proptech company Property Deals Insight seeks funding for SaaS solution
- nurtur.group completes its first investment through the accelerator programme – LettsPay
- Work from home and HS2 both impact rental costs outside London – NAPB
Leading proptech company Property Deals Insight seeks funding for SaaS solution
Having secured a place on this year’s REACH scale-up accelerator, Nitin Aggarwal, CEO of the proptech SME Property Deals Insight, is now heading up a funding round to secure capital to grow the business even further.
Having just returned back to his London base from international travel, Nitin explained:
“As the founder of Property Deals Insight, I’ve transformed my vision into an incredible new SaaS platform that delivers clear and accessible data to anyone buying a property or working in the property industry. And recently I was lucky enough to make it onto the largest global accelerator in real estate on the globe.
“Our software has been honed to perfection over time, using comprehensive data drawn from multiple sources over many years. It delivers instant information to anyone looking for a property or needing to check out a potential purchase.
“With data from 27 million+ UK homes available at the click of a mouse, Property Deals Insight is a powerful tool for property sources, estate agents and property investors, taking the guesswork out of profitable property purchases. We have a multiple personae client bases.
“The funding we are looking to secure is to further build our sales arm, and increase our market awareness and penetration because we are the best-kept secret and our automated valuation model which powers the whole enterprise is where the huge value sits.”
What is impressive about PDI is that Nitin developed the software out of frustration that there just was not an effective automated valuation model with enough datasets to help with multiple problems. For example, how could a property sourcer or investor know the correct value and yield of a property?
The Property Deals Insight solution includes local area analysis, so recently sold price overlaid with bespoke algorithms with exact prices per square meter. Also, cash flow and return on investment (ROI), providing a dynamic cash flow that shows users how they get their investment back and at what stage. Users can even predict the future; if they are thinking of immediately selling an investment they are able to see the likely return using that strategy.
In fact, the service also helps property professionals find deals as it cleverly analyses risk and reward on any property asset, it gives an instant digital overview of all the complex factors which go together to make up the true value of a property.
For further information, or for anyone who is looking to invest in the digital transformation of real estate, contact can be made to Nitin through www.propertydealsinsight.com.
nurtur.group completes its first investment through the accelerator programme – LettsPay
Since launching the Accelerator Programme at the end of January, nurtur.group has received a vast number of proptech applicants looking to launch their products and services with the group. After much deliberation, the team heading the Accelerator Programme have selected and closed their first deal with LettsPay, an automated client accounting engine that makes reconciling tenant rental payments and remaining compliant far easier.
Garrett Foxon, Founder of LettsPay, says: “We are very excited to have been selected as the first applicant to work with the Accelerator team. The partnership offers us access to a large network of property professionals, as well as the opportunity to increase our brand awareness with the sector. Working with the team of industry experts within nurtur.group will help us to propel our business forward, while providing the network with a proptech product that will assist agents in the lettings sector.”
Since April 2019, any lettings or management business that handles clients’ money must be part of the Client Money Protection (CMP) Scheme in order to trade. The state-of-the-art rental collection platform will help landlords and letting agents save valuable time while ensuring they remain compliant with CMP and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
Paul Offley, Compliance Officer at nurtur.group, says: “I’m genuinely excited by our investment in LettsPay and the service it can provide to our Members who offer lettings in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. This will really offer then an alternative banking solution, yet at the same time keep them fully in control of their client’s money. All too often I come across cases where banks are writing to an increasing number of Members with a warning that they wish to close undesignated client accounts, and for an agent with over three hundred landlords the logistics of having to operate 300 individual designated accounts, or change banks, is quite daunting. Working with LettsPay takes away the issue completely. Through the portal each firm would have an automated designated client account for each of their landlords with the added bonus of no bank charges, no hassle from the bank and a fully automated system, which is backed by CMP and has a full reconciliation and audit trail, all under the name of the agent.”
Foxon adds that the platform uses the latest finance technology to create the separate accounts for landlords, with their own sort code and account number. “The tenant is notified automatically by the platform to pay their account. When payment is received, LettsPay auto allocates the funds, which means all the letting agent would need to do is create and approve the payout to the landlord. The system will communicate to the tenant that the payment has been received and it will produce an automatic statement for the landlord. The automation of the process will save agents time and will make it far easier to manage a larger portfolio of clients. The platform is also able to manage payments to contractors, deposit accounts and HMRC for NRL tax,” he says.
Investment from nurtur.group into proptech products like LettsPay will be hugely beneficial to both the innovators creating the products as well as the network of agents within the group. Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, which is part of nurtur.group, says: “Innovative technology such as the LettsPay will ensure the group is at the forefront of development, driving progression within the sector and providing agents with a wider array of proptech products that will save money, make money, and help them remain compliant. As a group we are continuously thinking ahead to make sure that we are delivering tech to support our Members and help them overcome challenges. nurtur.group will continue to work with more applicants through the Accelerator Programme to propel innovations through investment and develop new and exciting technology for property businesses within the network.”
Work from home and HS2 both impact rental costs outside London – NAPB
“Work from home and HS2 have made living outside of London more desirable which has had a knock on effect on rent…expect rates to carry on going one way – up.”
The cost of renting a home in London is now FOUR times more expensive than some parts of northern England, new research shows.
Renters now face having to fork up to £1,757 per month to secure the keys for a pad in Greater London.
But in the North East average rents are hovering around £503 a month.
The National Association of Property Buyers, who collated the figures, say it underlines once again how the UK is suffering from a “chronic housing shortage”.
Spokesman Jonathan Rolande, also the co-director of House Buy Fast, said: “The pandemic has seen a surge in house prices – but it has also created a goldmine for landlords too.
“Rent rates in many areas have sky-rocketed and although London has predictably seen the steepest climbs the Midlands and the north west have also recorded really marked increases.
“Work from home and HS2 have made living outside of London more desirable which has had a knock on effect on rent.
“Also I think many people aged 18-30 have simply given up on the idea of ever owning a home and are instead spending a bit more money on a beautiful rental property rather than putting a bit of cash away for a deposit.
“There’s little sign the trend is going to change – so expect rents to carry on going one way; up.”
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