EGi • 26th June 2017

News Article - Tech: Poking holes in reality

If you celebrated the death of “Pokes” on Facebook, turn away now. The latest technological revolution involves people taking the phones, staring at the screen and running around (yes, outdoors) to find imaginary creatures. Pokémon Go is now more popular than Tinder. And it is only one week old. For those who are struggling to connect the dots: this game, available on your smartphone, is more sought after than casual sex. Don’t believe me? Look at how many people are aimlessly wandering aroun

EGi • 26th June 2017

News Article - 20 years on: all change after Brexit

It has been 20 years since the United Kingdom exited the EU, opening up this small but wealthy collection of states to massive change. While some of that upheaval was negative – farmers went out of business en masse as the UK government didn’t fully replace subsidies provided by the common European market – some was more positive – the UK attracted inflows of capital and skilled labour from the most unexpected places across the Commonwealth. Technologists from India, entrepreneurs from the Car

EGi • 26th June 2017

News Article - Real estate's 360 degrees of reality

Last week YouTube launched its Live 360 platform, a service that allows you to look around a live video scene by simply swiping around on your smartphone. A host of newfangled 3D cameras, ranging in price from hundreds to thousands of pounds, makes this possible (see below). Appealing to virtual reality camera makers and consumers, YouTube hopes to become the de facto destination for interactive live videos. While live music has been touted as the natural fit to showcase how virtual reality ca

Property Industry Eye • 19th June 2017

If the new breed of buying agents takes off, what would this mean for portal prices?

Buying agents have traditionally been niche in the UK – to serve only those wealthy enough to pay for them out of their own pocket. In the US, the seller is mandated to pay for the buyer’s agent, as the ‘conveyance’ is done by licensed real estate agents on both sides. It would be a fundamentally different experience if there was someone experienced holding your hand while finding a home. Like a Homie. No, that wasn’t a typo. A fast-growing service offers people the help of your very own Homi

Property Industry Eye • 12th June 2017

How will Guild agents feel on being told their organisation will help them earn less?

Back in 2015, newspapers covered the story of easyProperty’s launch with headlines claiming the company would ‘wipe out’ high street estate agents. Now, with easyProperty’s merger with the Guild of Property Professionals and Fine & Country, it seems their investors have finally decided to pull the plug on founder Rob Ellice’s failed strategy. I thought it an opportune moment to look at the wider trend of poorly managed estate agents panicking their way into a low, fixed fee offering – one that

Property Industry Eye • 30th May 2017

Is the day of the tenant's deposit about to be over?

It’s without doubt the most painful and stressful part of renting: forking over large amounts of money to keep landlords feeling comfortable. The tenancy deposit was so abused that it took major legislation and punitive rules about returning deposits in a timely manner. Legislative guidance is always tricky. Boris Johnson’s ‘London Rental Standard’ didn’t quite hit the mark: https://twitter.com/rentpro/status/867698819856822272 For many tenants, the fact they need to hand over one deposit whi

Property Industry Eye • 25th May 2017

Is the Land Registry going to come out of the dark ages and opt for proptech?

The UK’s Land Registry is intent on trialling ‘blockchain’ – the technology made famous by electronic currency Bitcoin. Before we go into what this means and how it’s supposed to work for the rest of us, it’s important to point out that conveyancers still send transfer documents by fax to the Land Registry. And the Land Registry has to transcribe these often hand-written amends to property titles. The dark ages would not be too mild a summation of where the Land Registry is in terms of technol

Property Industry Eye • 15th May 2017

So THIS is why online agents keep putting up their prices?

I was surfing on the Wayback Machine, looking for nostalgia. In case you haven’t ever used it, the Wayback Machine is the archive of the internet. Head to web.archive.org and type in a website to see its old versions. My personal favourite is Geocities. It was proof that the crowd definitely doesn’t have too much wisdom. What quickly becomes apparent when looking at old websites is how the vast majority of estate agent websites look like they belong in the archives of the internet. Consideri

Property Industry Eye • 8th May 2017

Why no proptech successes in the UK other than those of the purple persuasion?

The name Brendan Wallace won’t mean much to most people, but his influence just greatly increased. Alongside his co-founder Brad Griewe, he has raised $212m for a proptech fund. This is their first official fund, after a few years of advising on proptech fundraising and participating in a number of successful investments. To date they’ve overseen $60m of investments, of which they still control $28m, into companies such as VTS and Opendoor. Alongside Thrive Capital – the venture fund founded

Property Industry Eye • 2nd May 2017

The advert that says so much about where our industry is going

There I was, minding my own business on London’s underground* when this Bairstow Eves advert assaulted my eyes: In case you don’t know, this is the main London brand of estate agency giant Countrywide. I’d like to analyse this advert, as it says much about where our industry is going: While the likes of HouseSimple, YOPA, Tepilo and Purplebricks have super polished adverts, the largest high street estate agency by branches managed to produce this. And that is the interesting thing about seei

Property Industry Eye • 24th April 2017

Rayhan's proptech news: Should you ditch the high street office and go 'hybrid'?

Hybrid agency is all the buzz – Purplebricks, Countrywide and Martin & Co are just some of the better known brands looking to shape the space. But should every agent consider going hybrid? And what apps will smooth this transition? The most difficult part of estate agency is not selling homes. It never has been. It is for this reason why Rightmove dominates mindshare without having ever sold a home. The same logic has led to the rise of Purplebricks which does little more than list property

Property Industry Eye • 11th April 2017

Rayhan's proptech news: A look at the property empire of Donald Trump's son-in-law

The dichotomy between innovation in the US and Europe is no small irony. In the UK, venture capitalists gripe over valuations and never compete to fund the future. It’s a major reason why the next Facebook or Google won’t come from the UK: the funding isn’t here. Insufficient funding has a knock-on effect in that the best, most talented people gravitate to where they are treated best. Those who believe in ripping up and replacing with new and better don’t thrive in the UK. In the US, they’re

Property Industry Eye • 3rd April 2017

Rayhan's proptech latest: Is technology making agents worse than lazy?

I first noticed this four years ago: estate agents stopped getting up to greet customers walking into their office. They just sat there, as if the person was disturbing them. It bugged me so much that I conducted some research. We targeted Stoke Newington, Battersea and Ealing Common – yes, all in London. The results: only one out of ten agents got up to greet people as they walked in. And it was obvious why: the job had become about listings and answering email and phone enquiries. They were

Medium • 18th August 2016

Property Partner’s journey to become the ‘stock market of real estate’

This is the last thing Dan Gandesha said to me this week when I erroneously suggested that ‘all’ residential blocks were like commercial property and most people didn’t aspire to live in them. He duly brought in his expert Robert Weaver who serves as Property Partner’s Director of Property and is responsible for all the property they buy (and don’t buy). Robert explained that beyond picking the right locations, which impact anticipated demand more than the fabric of the building, they focus on

Medium • 14th April 2016

Property Partner and Proptech investment volume — Proptech Weekly #27

As an indirect follow up to last week’s Proptech Weekly, CB Insights released data on Proptech fundraising in the first 3 months of 2016. If you’re a start-up founder in the UK whose name isn’t Dan Gandesha, you don’t figure on the list. He can’t be the only Proptech founder with true ambition and the graft to back it up. But numbers don’t often lie, and he’s the one growing his business and raising money in a way that’s making everyone’s head turn. And as discussed last week, gettin