BREAKING PROPERTY NEWS – 19/08/2022
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Estate Agent Networking partners with Property Tech Show
The ultimate property tech show is coming to London in February 2023 and Estate Agent Networking have been chosen as a media partner. The importance and the increase in interest of the subject #PropTech remains strong in 2022 and industry experts expect this trend to continue through 2023 and beyond. 15 – 16 Feb 2023 sees the Business Design Centre, London, UK hosting what will be one of the property industry’s highlight events of the year with both exhibition and conference dedicated to the subject of property technology.
“The surge in disruptive technologies in the past few years has led to the transformation of the real estate market, the industry is now seen as a tech-driven sector with significant developments taking place in areas such as construction, logistics, payment technologies, rentals, workspaces etc and most importantly the changes required to meet the sustainability pledges are hugely contributing to the technology transformation of the industry. In terms of investments, the PropTech segment currently is coming out to be the most sought after segment within the real estate sector and is growing at a rapid pace with a record-breaking increase in investments YoY.”
Watch out for regular updates from Estate Agent Networking regarding the show. To find out more about tickets and to register your interest in the show visit their website here today.
The Guild goes on tour this Autumn
Starting on the 29th of September, The Guild of Property Professionals will be embarking on its Autumn/Winter 2022 Tour, hosting regional meetings in various cities around the UK.
Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, says: “Our regional tour has become an annual fixture on the calendar, giving us an opportunity to spend time with our Members in person and share some exciting insight with them regarding both the sector and what is happening within the network. This year our focus will be on the launch of UKs first automated referral system built by nurtur.group technology. We will also be talking about other ways in which The Guild is looking to unlock the housing market and drive additional revenue to our Members, especially during a time when listings are hard to come by and competition amongst agents is heating up.”
McKenzie says that a lot has happened over the past year within The Guild regarding partnerships and new deals that will help the network to increase their revenue while streamlining their processes. “The Guild network has been working hard to ensure that we have all the right products and services in place that will provide our Members with an edge in today’s competitive environment. Our strategic alignment and partnership with various proptech suppliers have helped us to bring innovative tools to the table that will enhance our service offering, while propelling our Members lead generation and digital marketing forward,” he comments.
According to McKenzie, other topics to that will be covered during the regional meetings include chain repair solutions, and of course, compliance with Compliance Officer, Paul Offley. “From a compliance standpoint, there have been a lot of changes within the sector up until this point, with more to come throughout the remainder of the year. It is important that agents are aware of all these changes to ensure they are prepared and have the processes in place to deal with them. For our network, Paul Offley has been a life source and is always on hand to provide guidance to our Members when needed,” he adds.
We are looking forward to seeing our Members in person at the various venues around the UK. Tickets to The Guild Autumn/Winter 2022 Tour will be free to Guild Members with thirteen dates and locations around the UK to choose from. Dates and venues are as followings:
- 29 September: Northern Ireland, Hilton Belfast
- 4 October: Bristol, Ashton Gate Stadium
- 5 October: Cardiff, Cardiff City Football Stadium
- 6 October: Exeter, Sandy Park Conference Centre
- 11 October: Southampton, The Hilton at Ageas Bowl
- 12 October: Kent, Mercure Maidstone Great Danes Hotel
- 18 October: Cambridge, Novotel, Cambridge North Station
- 19 October: Nottingham, Southwell Racecourse
- 20 October: Birmingham, Aston Villa FC
- 1 November: London, The Bloomsbury
- 8 November: Haydock, Haydock Park Racecourse
- 9 November: Yorkshire, Wetherby Racecourse
- 10 November: Newcastle United Football Club, St James’ Park
Immo hires Solarisbank CTO Hima Mandali
IMMO, the tech-driven residential investment platform revolutionising renting, selling and investing in single-family rental (SFR) housing, has appointed a Chief Technology Officer following a record-breaking $75 million Series B round.
Hima Mandali, who joins from Solarisbank AG, Europe’s leading banking-as-a-service platform, will be responsible for further developing and enhancing IMMO’s in-house technology-driven investment platform.
Mandali’s appointment, which will see him take up a newly created role, follows a year of rapid growth for IMMO. In April, the company raised $75 million in what remains Europe’s largest-ever proptech Series B round, and recently announced plans to spend £2.5 billion acquiring and retrofitting over 10,000 homes across the UK, Germany, Spain & the EU to rent out under IMMO’s living-as-a-service model.
IMMO – which has offices in the UK, India, Germany, and Spain – uses proprietary technology powered by artificial intelligence to identify, acquire, and refurbish existing homes before renting and managing them using IMMO’s consumer tech platform. Mandali’s appointment comes at a time when IMMO is building out its data science and engineering teams, having grown significantly since the Series B fundraise and nearly doubled headcount to close to 200 staff worldwide. In his new role as CTO, Mandali will also lead on ensuring consistency of standards as IMMO continues to scale its platform.
During his time at Solarisbank AG, Mandali led and managed globally distributed teams of over 350 engineers, and was responsible for migrating the bank’s systems, products and databases to the cloud – making Solaris the first to do so in Germany.
Between 2008 and 2019, Mandali spent 12 years at CapitalOne, an American bank where he most recently held the role of Director of Software Engineering.
Hima Mandali, Chief Technology Officer at IMMO, said: “As Europe’s leading technology-led residential real estate investment platform, IMMO benefits from an early-mover advantage in a sector that is attracting an ever-growing weight of capital.
“I believe the company has the potential to be Europe’s first proptech unicorn and will help unlock the world’s largest asset class – residential real estate – while also delivering positive environmental and social outcomes by providing sustainable, better quality rental housing.
“Key to my role will be helping the company to scale, innovate while maintaining standards following the Series B fundraise, and instilling a ‘platform-over-product’ mindset that sees our technical teams thinking how to not just solve one particular pain point, but how to modernise housing markets to the benefit of consumers.”
Avinav Nigam, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at IMMO, said: “Hima’s appointment as chief technology officer is a testament to the quality of talent we have been able to attract at IMMO at all levels, having grown the team significantly since our landmark Series B fundraise.
“This is a crucial time for the business as we look to grow and scale our platform and having the right people is just as critical as having the right data and technology.”
Hans-Christian Zappel, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at IMMO, said: “The rental housing model has barely changed in a century and is in urgent need of disruption.
“I’m incredibly excited to welcome Hima’s breadth of knowledge and expertise. His unique experience in building high-performing technology teams at highly regulated fintech firms will allow us to simultaneously push the envelope on innovation in real estate while delivering impactful, tech-enabled investment models whose robustness meets the needs of some of the most established institutional investors in the world.”
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