The Problem With Propertymark
Do I like the idea of an organization that nurtures and helps its membership, who defends its interests, listens to its members needs and is the torch bearer of truth, integrity and is above approach with regard to its financial probity, especially as it may sell guidance to its membership on this very topic?
The answer is Yes.
Instead 17,000 members are paying subscriptions to have the Propertymark badge of Honour on their letterheads, on their office windows, and yet something has gone very badly wrong. The organisation that they embrace has – lost its way.
It has for several years, been focused on a RoPA cold war, telling its membership that it must pay for courses in readiness for the new RoPA regulations, whipping up hysteria and unease in the rank and file of good agents with several decades of agency knowledge and experience. My advice – stop this now.
If the government ever passes RoPA, by the time it arrives it will be 2025, by which time the technological changes that are sweeping through all industries including real estate, will mean that issues of compliance and conduct will to a large degree be sorted by software, AI, and intelligent coding.
Not courses and talk and chalk, which I assume was why Tim Balcon was bought in – to bolster numbers of Propertymark’s and sell them online courses. Great, well a great revenue spinner, but does it do anything for the membership?
In case no one has noticed, the pandemic has reset how the public buys and sells things, online sales went from 20% annually to 31% last year, Arcadia and all the other high street brands that have gone, show that online is not just a fad.
What has Propertymark done to help its members transact differently? What inniatives has Propertymark undertaken to help its members be fit for trading in 2030?
Is it not time that someone grasped the nettle and said the big item on the real estate agenda is not regulation – it is understanding how the consumer of all things property – the tech savvy millennials who are 40 + and those younger want to do business and expect to do business in the property world.
I am lucky I have met over 300 Proptech founders and I have over 30 years of estate agency experience and I guarantee that there is a tsunami of digital on the way into the estate agency sector. Multiple billions of pounds is being invested into this space race, and Propertymark if it wants to be relevant should be at the forefront of this.
I deal daily with companies in the following areas, and not one of them is pre-occupied with the non-existent regulations of RoPA, they are re-imagining the whole of real estate. Maybe I should set up an organization with an eye to the future, which de-risks its members by embracing the important things and helps them understand it all in simple terms.
3D Modelling, 3D Printing, Accelerators, Agent Services, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Asset Management, Auction, Augmented Reality, Augmented Valuation, Big Data, BIM, Biometric Security, Bitcoin, Broker Free Listing Search, Coliving, Commercial Real Estate, Compliance, Contech, Conveyancing, Co-Working, CRM, Crowdfunding, Cryptocurrency, Customer Experience (UX), Cyber Maturity.
Data Protection, Data Valuation, Design, Development, Digital Twin, Drones, ESG, Facility Management, Fintech, Funding, Geolocation, Geospatial, Home Services, Indoor Mapping, Infrastructure & Sensors, Investment & Finance, Investment Management, Investment Platforms, IoT.
Lead Generation, Legal Tech, Leasing Management Software, Lending – Mortgages, Lending Peer to Peer, Lending Tech, Lettings, Listing & Search Services, Location Based Services, Logistics, Long Term Rentals/Sale Search, Management & Maintenance, Marketing, Marketplaces, Money Transfer/Remittance, Mortgage Tech, Modular, Online Agent Brokerage, Online Agent Lettings, Online Agent Sales, Online Agents, Open Banking.
Payment Operations, Payments/Billing Tech, Platforms, Portals, Portfolio Management, Property & Infrastructure, Property Management Solutions, Property Marketing platform, Property/Building Management, Real Estate Investment, Real Estate Marketing Solutions, Real Estate Tools.
SaaS, Sales & Marketing, Shared Economy, Shared Services, Short Term Rentals, Smart Building, Smart Buildings, Smart Cities, Smart Cities & Mobility, Smart City Sustainability, Smart Homes, Smart Real Estate, Smart Services, Software Providers, Space as a Service, Start-ups, The Shared Economy, Valuation Tools, Venture Capital, Virtual Reality and Virtual Viewing.
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