Breaking Property News – 07/07/2023
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Will the Australian Pexa Group acquire UK AIM listed Smoove plc?
In a little over a week, it will be clear if the Pexa Group a behemoth proptech home moving business based in Australia, headed by CEO Glenn King, will swallow up its UK and much smaller in revenue size competitor Smoove Plc, run by CEO Jesper With-Fogstrup.
If the deal goes through, the younger company Pexa which has been around since 2018 and turned over £150M last year, will be looking to grow its empire in the UK. On the face of it, Smoove which has been around for nearly two decades and turned over £19M last year making a £5M loss, would seem a prime target.
But in the present retrograde residential housing market, and higher cost of capital, maybe the deal will not happen, if terms can not be hammered out that suit both parties. True the re-mortgage marketplace is a sweet spot for the conveyancing side of operations for both companies, but the Pexa/Smoove dance does seem to be a protracted one.
For those unfamiliar, with these two enterprises, according to Jamie Lennox, Editor, Today’s Conveyancer, “Smoove plc has been providing software solutions for nineteen years. Their services include onboarding / home moving software Smoove, conveyancing comparison platform eConveyancer, case management software DigitalMove, and compliance support from Legal Eye.”
Andrew Stanton asks – Do estate agents help or hinder?
We are now officially in the silly season regarding news cycles, many journalists are on holiday, myself included, leading to a situation where stories about pet rescues or similar take centre stage, rather than real news. But as I recline in my deckchair looking out to sea from the Guernsey shoreline, I contemplate whether in 2023, estate agents in the UK are up to the job of selling property anymore.
Let me explain, in 2023 I looked to purchase a number of different properties in various locations across the country, in different price ranges and from independent agents and corporate agents, and this is experience was pretty close to having my teeth pulled out with a set of pliers.
As recently as last week, I rang an agent at 11.30 am and left an answer phone message as no-one answered my call, this agent is a large corporate, the downside for the vendor whose property I needed further intel on is that I moved on to another property. If this was a one off fair enough, but having trawled through six months of activity with various agents this low level of service is the norm, whether I enquire by phone or email etc, no-one ever comes back to me.
Looking back at data, in 2023 so far agents failed to respond for a request for further information 68% of the time, that is if I requested lease details, or why the floorplan was at odds with the photographs etc, mostly I never had a reply, which meant that I was not going to pursue that property further.
Top Companies Revolutionizing Real Estate with AI Solutions according to Wesley Snow CEO of Ascendix
According to Wesley Snow CEO of Ascendix and a poloymath on the topic, $97.9 billion of investment capital will pour into AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered real estate companies in 2023. Considering the unprecedented opportunities AI offers to real estate players, Wesley feels the investments will grow exponentially, as will the benefits. Think, everything from virtual tours, split-second property searches, chatbots that fully substitute human labour – all these are only a part of the AI potential, since there are more solutions to anticipate.
In the following comprehensive industry overview, CEO Wesley Snow looks at the companies that have already come to the forefront of AI in real estate software development. With many more coming through at speed to take advantage as the analogue world of real estate gives way to its digital counterpart.
What is AI in Real Estate?
For CEO Wesley Snow, AI in real estate encompasses advanced algorithms and machine learning models aimed to automate real estate processes and provide users with predictive analytics, chatbots, machine learning, AI-powered underwriting, image generation, and other solutions for data-driven decisions. AI real estate solutions like TRIGIGA, GeoPhy, Enodo, Autohost, and Propic automate buying, selling, and investing along with property management, saving time and adding efficiency to real estate transactions.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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