BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 13/07/2021
Daily bite-sized proptech and real estate news in partnership with Proptech-X. Today, Stanton looks at Mojo Mortgages, Yoti, Savills, and more.
- Mojo Mortgages exits to ZPG subsidiary as they look to control mortgage cycle
- Savills employee in police investigation over alleged racist Twitter post
- Conveyancing Association wants the Government to move “further and faster”
- RICS says that undersupply of properties will keep prices buoyant
- Yoti webinar on the future of technology and real estate makes key observations
Mojo Mortgages exits to ZPG subsidiary as they look to control mortgage cycle
In a strategic move, ZPG, which of course owns Zoopla, has now acquired fintech Mojo Mortgages. Launched just three years ago, Mojo Mortgages is a free brokerage service, allowing digital natives to get access to key mortgage information.
Clearly, ZPG is looking to get across the multi-million-pound mortgage and re-mortgage market by having a link in every part of the property finance journey.
Savills employee in police investigation over alleged racist Twitter post
A Savills employee has been reported to the police for allegedly making a racist comment on the social media platform Twitter. The unconfirmed reports also suggest that the person in question may have had their account hacked. All of this happened following the Euros, as a result of England’s loss at the hands of Italy. Enquiries continue.
Conveyancing Association wants the Government to move “further and faster”
The CA, one of the governing forces of the conveyancing process, wants the proposed changes signalled by the government in the latest Queen’s Speech to move up a gear, in order to protect all stakeholders poorly served by recent events.
They want an immediate end to leasehold houses and are pushing towards a commonhold policy around property, a topic that has been around for a long time.
Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at the Conveyancing Association, said: “The CA, and many other industry stakeholders, have been urging the Government to act on leasehold for the past eight years and, while it was very positive to see the Leasehold Reform Bill make it to the Queen’s Speech, we now need action in a whole host of areas, specifically those measures which have already been announced but have yet to be turned into specific legislation.”
RICS says that undersupply of properties will keep prices buoyant
Following a recent analysis by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, who actively investigate the state of the market by contacting their membership, it seems that prices of properties are set to continue to rise.
Simon Rubisohn, Chief Economist, said to the BBC: “Respondents are pretty unanimous in once again highlighting the challenge around supply, whether in the sales or rental markets.”
Yoti webinar on the future of technology and real estate makes key observations
Industry heavyweight Gary Barker, who makes all the key decisions on property technology across the Connells group’s 1,300 branches, together with CEO Robin Tombs of Yoti, teased out some powerful insights in a webinar last Thursday, with a little help from myself.
It was agreed that the pandemic not only speeded up digital transformation in real estate but that the public themselves were more open to “doing property” in a modern, digital way.
The hour-long webinar touched upon many topics at the forefront of the real estate sector, including digital IDs, which verticals of property technology were advancing quickest, and the future of portals and estate agents.