easyProperty has launched a second funding round targeting Ultra High Net Worth Individuals and key figures in the City of London, to augment £5m raised earlier this year.
The website - which as revealed exclusively on Estate Agent Today earlier this month will launch on September 15 - will open with a lettings service only, before starting a sales service from next spring.
A marketing campaign will be launched for the easyProperty rentals proposition within the next few days. Chief executive Robert Ellice says easyProperty already has 10,000 rental properties pre-registered and aims to let between 4,000 and 5,000 homes a month.
In true easyGroup fashion, its ambition knows no national boundaries - it plans to expand across Europe within three years.
The announcement about the second funding round was made by Ellice in a Financial Times article sub-titled Death of the real estate agent'. In addition, the piece looked at the contrast between costs to customers of traditional estate agents and online agents.
The cast-list of interviewees will be familiar to readers of Estate Agent Today - in the new school' corner, Sarah Beeny, Adam Day of Hatched and Aidan Rushby and Logan Hall of Movebubble, while in the old school' corner was Ed Mead of Douglas & Gordon.
The article, by FT property correspondent Kate Allen, likened the economically-disruptive
model of online estate agency to disruptive forces in other business sectors - for example, app- and web-based taxi hire services such as Uber which have recently been criticised by London black cab drivers, and the Airbnb accommodation site which has recently become a popular alternative to traditional hotel-booking services.
The article says Rightmove and Zoopla have been the chief enablers allowing vendors an alternative - the online agent - to the traditional high street agent.
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