Portal pledges to remain free to list for agents - forever

A property portal says that it’s going to remain free to list for estate and letting agents - and that pledge will remain in place forever, it insists.

Residential People was set up in March of last year and within 10 months now claims to have approaching a million property listings from the UK and six other countries; agencies in this country include Keller Williams UK, Belvoir, Stirling Ackroyd and Lovelle Estates. 

The portal says it generates income through banner advertising, featured listings and other marketing features that it describes as “completely optional value-added propositions.” 

It insists that unlike some other PropTech platforms, it does not harvest or sell agents’ data to provide additional income.

"While agents who list on Rightmove are being charged over £1,000 per branch, and other portals charge a monthly fee - regardless of how many sales are made - agents on Residential People are able to receive and convert leads completely free, making joining the portal a win-win situation” claims director Christopher May.

“As a progressive PropTech platform, we are always interested to hear the views of agents regarding the struggles they face in today’s market. Residential People was created with agents in mind, so we are more than happy to listen, collaborate and support agencies in order to build a strong platform to benefit the property sector.”

He adds: “One of Residential People's biggest optional premium features is its online automatic video generator that allows subscribed agents to share their properties effortlessly. Instead of giving agents more fees to consider [this portal] aims to facilitate the success of one of the most critical players in the property sector, the estate agent. Residential People differentiates itself from its competitors by putting the needs of the agent front and centre.”

Residential People and its sister commercial property platform, Commercial People, say they have listings from over 5,000 agencies across the UK, UAE, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa.

They say that over the past 10 months they have established partnerships with CRM firms including Acquaint CRM, Alcium Software, 10ninety, Dezrez, Reapit, SME Professional and PropData.