Breaking Property News – 04/08/2023
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Should Rightmove share its profits with estate agents?
2023 looks like being the first year that property sales completions will be under the one-million mark since 2012. In contrast to last year when 1.25 million homes were sold, and the 1.48 million high of 2022. With high interest rates and CALC, the steam has come out of the market and it is predicted only 930,000 will be on the move by the end of December.
For estate agents who rely on making a profit to survive, a reduction in the volume of completions directly hits them in the pocket, so a 30% drop in revenue is really going to bite. In contrast whatever the housing market climate is, Rightmove with its Saas model of monthly fees, plus add on services seems to be bucking the trend announcing a healthy 10% increase of revenue up to £179.5m, with an underlying profit of £133.2M.
So the big question is with agents clearly in need of help, could Rightmove offer a helping hand? Well some agents think so, and they are not talking about a reduction in fees, no some agents are openly talking about sharing some of the income streams that Rightmove is keeping to itself.
The dissent seems to be around redistributing some of the cash that Rightmove seem to be scooping up in an industrial manner around the ‘mortgage’ part of their business, where fresh buyers possibly are being taken out of play and pushed to a specific lender, meaning that down river an agent can not monetise that buyer as they are already sorted when it comes to property finance.
nurtur.group further expands its ecosystem with Apex27 CRM integration, enhancing efficiency for property professionals
Press Release – (and full disclosure I am in my daytime job as CEO of Proptech-PR a NED for the associated nurtur.accelerator)
nurture.group, a leading provider of innovative proptech solutions, is proud to announce its latest integration with Apex27, a specialised CRM platform designed for estate agent professionals, offering comprehensive solutions for sales, lettings, auctions, and commercial real estate. This integration marks yet another step in nurtur.group’s commitment to expanding its eco-system and providing seamless experiences for property professionals across the industry.
The integration of the nurtur.group eco-system with Apex27 CRM brings together two powerful platforms, enabling estate agents to streamline their operations, improve client interactions, and drive business growth. With nurtur.group’s cutting-edge proptech solutions complementing Apex27’s robust CRM capabilities, estate agent professionals can expect a more comprehensive, efficient, and user-friendly experience.
Richard Combellack, Chief Commercial Officer at nurtur.group, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We are thrilled to integrate the nurtur.group eco-system with Apex27, a CRM platform renowned for its excellence in serving the unique needs of estate agent professionals. This collaboration aligns perfectly with our vision of fostering innovation and efficiency within the property industry. By combining our strengths, we aim to empower agents to optimise their workflows, deepen client relationships, and ultimately achieve better business outcomes.”
Coadjute says let’s share data, not documents: Revolutionising the property market
My day job as well as being the owner and editor of Proptech-X and editor of Estate Agent Network, is working 1:1 with Property Technology founders, through my other company Proptech-PR ‘A consultancy for Proptech founders.’ What is key is that at any one time I get to have complete oversight as to what is happening in the real estate universe in the plan, build, sale, lease and management of property assets. And not just in the UK but globally.
Having previously been an estate agent for over 30-years, I do still have a soft spot for one part of this real estate ecosystem – residential estate agency, and with the Bank of England bludgeoning the industry into the ground, there really is a way for agents, brokers, lenders, conveyancers to band together and power the industry in a collaborative way that will get more property deals completed, faster improving everyone’s cashflow and consumer UX.
That is why one of my major clients is Coadjute – they get it, everyone is complaining that the legacy system of estate agency is grindingly slow, from government ministers, all the stakeholders and the public themselves but to mis-quote Boris Johnson, ‘the herd – has not moved’. Well if there was ever a time for ‘the herd to move’ it is now because for the foreseeable future cash flow, conversion of pipelines, the lifeblood of agencies and related businesses is going to be under enormous pressure – that is where a universal panacea like Coadjute comes in, it knits it all together.
The following is some thought leadership written by Hugh Davey for Coadjute and first appeared on the 17th of July 2023, it is well worth a read, and it is also worth reaching out to Coadjute’s CEO Dan Salmons or its COO John Reynolds who I know very well. Because they really can help you win big in these very turbulent times.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X