PropTech boss says he wants 'transformation of letting agents'

The founder of a PropTech start up called No Agent says despite his firm’s name he does not want to see letting agents abolished - instead he wants “significant improvement and transformation in the sector.”

Interviewed in The Guardian newspaper, Calum Brannan - whose firm provides technology for landlords to manage their own properties online for £35 to £45 a month - says that after launching only 11 months ago and raising over £580,000 through crowdfunding he now has 20 in-house staff and 500 ‘consultants’ to manage viewings. 

As Letting Agent Today reported last year, No Agent is the firm that has secured Gillian Kent, former Propertyfinder chief executive, to become board chairperson. .com (which she sold to Zoopla), has also joined the board as chairperson.

Brannon tells The Guardian that letting agents’ response to his service has been generally positive. 

“Our first trade show was scary to say the least, but we didn’t find the hostility we were expecting from letting agents. [Many of them] love the technology aspect and even enquired about licensing” he says.

But Brannan then says that while he doesn’t want to see “the complete demise” of the traditional letting agent he does want “significant improvement and transformation in the sector” - although precisely what this would involve is not set out in the article. 

“There are approximately two million private landlords in the UK and just 2.5 per cent of this market would be worth £50m in turnover,” he predicts. “Our plan is to chip away at this market by going against the status quo, and championing good customer service. Our ultimate goal is to do for the lettings industry what AirBnB did to the hotel industry.”

The rest of the article gives a sample of other PropTech firms - you can see the piece here.