WEEKLY NEWS ROUNDUP – 26/05/2023
A roundup of the week’s top property and proptech news stories in partnership with Proptech-X
Home Buying & Selling Technology Group Advances
I must declare an interest in the following press release from the HBSG, not least as many of my clients from Proptech-PR ‘A consultancy for Proptech founders’ are in the mix, as well as my own involvement. The evolution and significance of this extremely important project, which will benefit many stakeholders in the property sector is an example of collective purpose, sadly lacking in a fragmented approach to getting ‘property done’ in a fast and furious way.
Press Release, ‘The HBSG is pleased to announce the release of v2.0 of the Property Data Trust Framework and updated JSON schema. Launched via its Technology Working Group, these updates build on the success of the original framework, learnings from live beta testing, and provide even more comprehensive guidance for open property data sharing.
One of the biggest challenges facing the home moving industry has been its siloed systems and processes, closed platforms, and inability to share data in a trusted way. The lack of structured data and technology standards has stifled innovation and held the industry back, contributing to a poor customer and user experience – similar to the challenges seen in fintech and current account data before Open Banking.
Labour to Abolish Leasehold Property
Lisa Nandy who does not strike as a person with a full grasp of her housing brief, has decided that if in power Labour will abolish Leasehold property. This may be a populist move that will get voters on her side, but maybe she needs to think this through.
Just as many want there to be reforms in the rental sector, with landlords at present being pilloried, Scotland imposing rent caps, and the rights of tenants being paramount, it now turns out that onward investment in the build to rent sector in Scotland has stopped in its tracks, and landlords are exiting the marketplace.
The result there will be fewer properties for tenants, which means – higher rents, so the unintentional outcome of a poorly thought out policy.
When I state that Nandy the Shadow Housing secretary seems light on oversight in the housing sector, despite her history in that sector, I am not being politically biased, I just note that on every outing in front of a camera in panel debates like Question time, she is scant on detail and just plugs the usual party line, the poor are getting a bad deal and we can fix this
BriefYourMarket powers social media lead generation
Estate agents know that social media is a powerful tool for lead generation. Apart from portals, agents found social media, particularly Facebook, to be the most impactful lead generator to win new vendors. Utilising social media, many are seeing incredible results, vastly increasing their exposure and generating qualified vendor leads. The problem is most agents do all of this in a piecemeal and time consuming way.
Many agents do not understand the significant difference between simply having a presence on social media and actively working with a specialised team to create engaging campaigns that yield wide-ranging exposure and tangible results. Lead generation on auto-pilot.
Richard Combellack, Chief Commercial Officer at BriefYourMarket, part of nurtur.group, says: “There is a disparity between using an individual profile for posting and gaining exposure, versus collaborating with experienced professionals who can create compelling campaigns.