WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 19/05/2023
A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X
Purplebricks – failure of a one-trick pony
Purplebricks was a victim of the post SVB financial landscape, akin to the Dotcom bust of the 2000’s where we live in a world where the cash has been turned off, where new investment and continued investment into Technology and Proptech ventures has evaporated. Where VC rounds have diminished in number and value, banks failed and liquidity became problematic.
The hidden reason for Purplebricks failure is set out in its announcement of May 17th, 2023, its, ‘Proposed sale of business and assets to transfer of substantially all of its trading business and assets to Strike … (other than certain excluded assets) through its subsidiary Strike Bidco Limited (the “Purchaser”) for a consideration of £1’.
The most interesting details in the announcement are the words,
‘The Board did not consider the other potential offers provided either sufficient certainty or would be deliverable in the timeframe needed to resolve the Group’s short term funding issues arising from the agreement with its pay later financing provider being close to expiry and the Company’s cash balance declining’.
New 4Corners research shows mortgage advisors lower house sales falling through
A central problem for estate agents is the third of agreed sales failing to get to exchange, Phil Priest Sales Director of 4Corners Property, reveals brokers might be the answer.
Phil and his team spend all their time trying to help all the stakeholders in the home buying and selling process, and are using their data insights to find the true trends that few know about. He explains,
‘Estate agents are the ones affected by sales falling through more than anyone else as they do not charge any upfront fees, so why are they so slow in adopting a process which can secure 100% of sales?
Our study shows that our fall through rates with buyers and sellers is zero when the 4Moving Pack (Searches) are purchased by the buyer at the point of the offer being accepted and half the time to completion, so why the slowness in adopting this?
New Home Builders Implementing Customer Identity Standards with a UPRN
In my day job as CEO and Founder of Proptech-PR ‘A consultancy for Proptech Founders’ we come across and get involved with and support many iniatives, for many years we have been big advocates for resolving the need to sort out the tangled and imperfect infrastucture around the ID and AML, across all the verticals in real estate. And we know that Stuart Young has been making herculean efforts, to make this a reality. Here is the latest from Stuart CEO and Founder of Etive Technologies.
‘The Home Builders Federation (HBF) and Etive are pleased to see the variety of members are starting to implement the new customer identity verification (IDV) and anti-money laundering (AML) standards, either on their own or with the assistance of their panel conveyancers and brokers.
The MyIdentity Overlay Scheme has developed additional rules on top of those already in the DIATF to better meet the specific customer service and business needs of new home builders.
You May Also Enjoy
London property values set to fall
Second-steppers turn to higher LTV mortgages as deposits fall
Conservatories fall out of fashion
95% of estate agents say homebuying reforms could speed up property transactions
Private rent and house prices, UK: July 2026
