Archive

What a difference two months and some local elections make. Cast your minds back to March 9 and the annual report of...

The property industry is fortunate in including many great people, doing great work across a range of businesses – from traditional agency...

For the record, this isn’t my last Industry Views for Estate Agent Today, although by the time you read this I'll be...

If you want to sex-up the Chancellor’s financial statement scheduled for lunchtime on Wednesday, you’d call it a Budget or a...

This week, you will have all seen the sad news that Graham Norwood is stepping down as editor of Estate Agent...

Estate Agent Today is to have a new editor from April 4. He is award winning journalist and podcaster Marc Shoffman who...

Almost exactly a decade ago I wrote a blog on the back of a spate on mainstream news stories about prime...

Here’s the odd thing about interest rates - we all care about them, but they don’t directly affect that many people...

At the risk of mixing my metaphors, any mention of energy has become something of a blue touch paper in the...

The team at Estate Agent Today and our publisher, Angels Media, wish all agents a very prosperous New Year.  Thank you for your...

We’ve had a terrific display of agency and supplier videos running every weekday since late November - a wonderful lead-in to...

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas – just a week to go now. Presents all wrapped and...

We all know what did happen in 2021 - Covid and more Covid, the stamp duty holiday frenzy, a soaring rental...

Let’s begin with total transparency from this author: I believe there’s a place for Build To Rent in the wider portfolio...

I’ve never written the three letters ‘EPC’ more often than I have in the past week. Law changes for the private rental...

We’ve probably all learned to be a little less cynical about politicians in recent weeks, given the tragic events. We perhaps...

By the time I next write this column, we’ll be just days before the next Budget and Autumn Statement. So I’ll...

Few political policies have such a ring of the past as rent controls - they were last seen in this country...

I’m sorry to break this to you but in 10 days’ time it will be autumn - and we will have...

There’s already plenty of talk about autumn - depressing huh? - with agents pondering how the housing market will respond to...

There’s gathering momentum to do ‘something’ about the unfairness of council tax and stamp duty. This isn’t new in principle. Agents have...

At first sight it’s a tough ask to defend holiday homes when there’s evidence that many who want to buy can’t,...

I recently saw a fly-through video for a home on sale for well over £2m. The imagery was good (made better by...

It’s been another terrific week for good deeds by our industry - so often under-reported but so important for agents and...

Right now it seems that another day means another house price record, an all-time high for transactions, and a conveyancing log-jam...

Books about property are, relatively speaking, commonplace - books by estate agents are far less so, hence the interest in The...

It’s been quite a week for the rental sector. Lettings agents and landlords have had such a torrid time in recent years...

Boomin founder Michael Bruce says his new site has enjoyed a stronger start than any other portal in terms of visits, viewings,...

Local elections rarely set the pulse racing and this year’s poll on Thursday faces a similar problem. But this time, it’s a...

For many, the funeral of HRH Prince Philip will be a solemn affair, while for some it will also be a...

The launch of Boomin has been and gone with, perhaps, something less than its expected fanfare of publicity. Of course there are...

Few people in the industry have as controversial or challenging a role as Nathan Emerson, the new (but interim) chief executive...

Nathan Emerson, the new chief executive of Propertymark, says his mission is to make the organisation more transparent - and to...

Purplebricks is now part of the mainstream landscape of British estate agency. There - I said it. An agency whose whispered name...

One of the biggest TV hits of lockdown has been the Netflix show Call My Agent! It’s a surprise success, perhaps, because...

When it comes to communications, Propertymark could do with a lot fewer confidentiality agreements and a lot more transparency. And I...

There is no scientific formula, no list of must-have elements in a successful campaign. That’s especially the case for a campaign involving...

I have written this column for over four years. I started writing it at a time when no-one really knew anything...

There’s been a flurry of recent activity involving agencies quoted on the London Stock Exchange: Hunters, The Property Franchise Group and...

Just a week ago, I thought it was all over. Christmas and New Year had gone, as had the passionate calls...

Here’s hoping you managed to have as good a Christmas and New Year as Covid rules allowed. Journalism in early January is...

The industry seems almost back to normal. Not the ‘new normal’ we spoke so much of a few weeks and months ago,...

The agency industry may look back on this year and say: “Well...to be honest we didn’t really see it coming.” No, no,...

With a new President elected and the old one reluctant to move out, this is a good time to see how...

Firstly, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Lockdown 2, as it’s being known, is now with us, but fortunately...

“I’ve got 47 years of experience as an agent. Do I still have to get a qualification?” asked one attendee at...

Book review by Graham Norwood, editor of Estate Agent Today, Letting Agent Today and Landlord Today. If a letting agent wants to...

We all know what the problem is, but what’s the solution? The problem is that landlords, thinking they offer a valuable service...

It’s no surprise the mainstream news remains dominated by coronavirus - not so much the actual effect of it right now,...

Hindsight is 20-20 vision, of course, and we can all see things we did ‘then’ that we would not do ‘now’....

It must have been a close thing on Friday as to whose faces were looking the most glum - those at...

If a week is a long time in politics (an old phrase, for younger readers), then a year is a very long...

You have to feel for Rishi Sunak - well, at least a little. Leave to one side that he carries more presentational...

It may be that by the time you read this it’s all over for Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for...

Dominic Cummings has been at worst a cause of huge anger to a nation that’s already extremely anxious. At best, he’s been...

All my recent Natters have been focused on one particular topic, the coronavirus crisis, for obvious reasons. But there has been...

Rightmove has taken the unusual step this weekend of issuing its usual monthly asking price index on a Saturday instead of...

As you know, having professional images of your properties is the best (only?) way to get people wanting to step through...

There has been much speculation about when agents will be allowed back to work, and what the new office working environment...

The coming week’s stories in the mainstream media - inevitably focused on Coronavirus - will be dominated by two things. Firstly there...

If it’s really the case that estate agents’ offices could be in the category of High Street premises first allowed to...

We are still living in highly extraordinary times, perhaps evidenced best by the fact that the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was...

There’s a sense that we really are on the verge of a huge change in the industry. It’s too early to be...

Where else to start? Since my last Natter two weeks ago, all our lives have changed more than we could ever...

The extraordinary past week of anger over portals’ fees plus early-warning statements like that from Foxtons indicate the anxiety in the...

It may be that we’re facing another year - make that yet another year - of disruption in the housing market. Coronavirus...

There’s something of a conspiracy of silence over the problem of short lets. That is a stark claim but many siren voices...

The 2010s were a good decade for disrupters. Early on, Airbnb and Uber shook up the holiday lettings/hospitality and traditional black...

Suddenly Brexit Day is nearly here. It may have taken three and a half years from the Referendum but the UK will,...

In six years of editing Estate Agent Today, some of my most dramatic moments have been covering the troubles - some...

A new year dawns - but will 2020 bring new change for the agency industry now that the market appears to...

This is our last edition of Estate Agent Today until Friday December 27 and everyone at Angels Media, EAT and the...

There are reasons to be optimistic that a majority government will improve the housing market, simply by ending political and economic...

Yes, believe it or not, we’ve nearly reached the end of a whole decade. And what an eventful decade it’s been. We’ve...

There used to be a consolation for some estate agents at this time of year - while it was wintry and...

Problems with relationships are usually helped, if not always resolved, by people asking straight questions and getting straight answers. That’s what we...

Reservation Agreements are the subject of the moment in the agency industry. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is to...

There are many adjectives that can be applied to Boris Johnson, probably very few of them complimentary, but there’s one that...

One of the legends of property journalism, Anne Ashworth, has left her position as editor of The Times’ highly regarded Bricks...

There’s a clear change of mood music in the country now regarding environmental issues. You don’t need to be old to remember...

If you thought - perhaps hoped - that five weeks of prorogued Parliament meant a break from politics, think again: the...

It’s been quite a week for news so you might have missed this story - there is yet another boost for...

It’s that time again. Each year I take a look at newspaper readership - not from the angle of journalists, but...

I missed the biggest property story of the week and it’s only scant consolation that almost everyone else seemed to miss it...

The industry press has given substantial space to recommendations from the Regulation of Property Agents, the government’s working party which has...

Britain lives in fundamentalist black-and-white times - all the more surprising when the country's most divisive point of contention sits on...

Emoov and Countrywide: what a pair, observers might say. They present a tale of two failures - although, in the case of...

While media attention has been on Theresa May, Brexit and the Tories, chatter in the agency industry has been about what...

Estate Agent Today has been named Property Trade Magazine of the Year 2019 at the annual Property Press Awards. It fought off...

It’s clear that some agents are not fans of Trading Standards officers, described in the comments sections of the trade press...

No, this isn’t about Brexit. But as the saga of leaving the EU is likely to bring about the downfall of...

Campaigning groups like Generation Rent and Shelter like to think they are simultaneously edgy and radical; likewise some think tanks believe...

It’s time, surely, for government to crackdown not just on rogue agents and landlords but on rogue councils that confuse the...

Countrywide’s executive chairman and group managing director have spoken to Estate Agent Today about the impact of Brexit on the company,...

It’s been a theatrical week in Westminster with talk of defections and duplicity worthy of Shakespeare. Yet the estate agency world has...

“You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over,” is an oft-quoted saying of Richard...

Kit Malthouse has been making headlines this week, but – in keeping with his tenure as Housing Minister so far -...

If you want an engaging page-turner novel for cold winter evenings, my recommendation is Our House by Louise Candlish, a bestseller...

Alongside hundreds of agents and suppliers, I recently attended the Guild of Property Professionals’ annual conference. As ever, it was a great...

I don’t think I can add anything more to the excellent 2019 pieces we’ve seen on EAT in recent weeks –...

It’s been an interesting week of contrasts when it comes to online replacing ‘the old school’. Data from that clever consultancy The...

The man who is leading the government’s efforts to reform the house buying process will be one of the speaker at...

Hello and welcome to 2019. These are less predictions and more expectations - developments following on from what’s happened in the past...

There’s nothing new about identifying 10 figures who have helped shape an industry over the past year, but that doesn’t mean...

Everyone at Estate Agent Today wishes all our readers, agents and suppliers to the industry, a peaceful and loving Christmas. If at...

Hard not to mention two major breaking news stories of recent days; one directly affecting the property market and one which...

Whatever one thinks about online estate agencies, it’s a cause of genuine sadness when people lose their jobs - close proximity...

The chief executive of failed online agency Emoov has been named this week as one of the 500 top “tech influencers”...

The title may be unfamiliar but most agents know by now that in the corridors of Whitehall a working party exists...

However mild the weather may have been for most of us, it’s a cold autumn for the online estate agency market...

Perhaps it’s been our pre-occupation with Brexit, or on the other hand maybe we’re bored with politics, but this year’s Budget...

No, I haven’t lost the plot. Such a thing exists – and if you’re familiar with North London, there is a...

It’s time to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to overseas buyers of property. If you listen to Theresa...

From where I’m standing there’s a lot in common between the debate between online and traditional agents, and the argument over...

Landlords and letting agents might feel they’ve taken a bit of a battering from the government in recent years – and...

There’s little doubt that downsizing is less of a factor in the housing market than it used to be - so...

Today sees the first of a series of important deadlines which will determine the success of otherwise of Countrywide’s controversial rescue...

At first sight, to suggest this is a good time for an agency business to go for an IPO - that...

It may not be a good idea for a journalist to be personal about a politician, so I write about our...

First things first, I have to mention the World Cup. The dream is over, football’s not quite coming home (not until...

Cast your mind back to July 2008 – Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, the Euros were in full swing in Austria/Switzerland...

So here’s the thing. It’s summer - not much going on, school holidays about to start, industry publications filling out space...

Location, Location, Location: it’s no coincidence the TV show seized on that title because the importance of a property’s position is...

Graham Norwood has scooped two accolades in the prestigious Property Press Awards for his work on Estate Agent Today and Letting...

Estate Agent Today editor Graham Norwood speaks to Debbie Franklin, Andrews Property Group's Head of Multi-Channel Fulfilment at FUTURE: PropTech 2018.   ...

Estate Agent Today editor Graham Norwood speaks to Sohail Rashid, founder of View My Chain at FUTURE: PropTech 2018. ...

The rise and fall - and perhaps rise again - of Countrywide has been of enduring interest to the agency industry...

Ever wondered what it’s like to be on the frontline of property journalism? Well, wonder no more, as our very own...

If you want to know whether buy to let, landlords and letting agents will be in the firing line for more...

As always seems to be the case with Purplebricks, the hybrid agency has had a good week...and a bad one. Undeniably impressive...

Have you noticed a new turf war going on on the fringes of the agency world? It’s not a high-profile battle like...

In an exclusive and candid interview with Estate Agent Today, Countrywide chairman Peter Long has admitted that the company had been...

The troubled Countrywide group has this morning revealed its recovery plan to get - in its words - ‘back to basics’...

The operation of ‘online estate agencies’ has changed substantially in the relatively short few years of their existence: I have spotted...

The other day I met with two agents who have 30 years of property sales experience between them, and yet also...

According to The Branding Journal, a brand is “a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's...

It’s no surprise that figures don’t always show the results or consequences we expect - even if they are entirely accurate. Look...

It’s traditional before Christmas to either review the year past or anticipate the one ahead - but I’m intrigued about what...

The LendInvest PropTech Influencer List has been revealed, naming the 25 figures in the property world that have done most to...

It’s not breaking new ground to say that younger people have what many regard as the raw end of the deal...

British politics is extraordinarily volatile right now and the ongoing battle between austerity and anti-austerity, Leave and Remain, and Conservative and...

It’s something of an understatement to say it’s been a busy fortnight for the industry in terms of announcements, consultations and...

Another week, yet more consultations - the agency industry can’t complain about not being asked for its views recently. The latest were on...

Like many of Labour’s recent policy proposals, its call for rent controls leaves more questions than answers.  There has been widespread criticism...

The long-running saga of whether independent agents’ group CIELA is ever going to launch appears to be nearing its end game...

It used to be so easy. Around 20 years ago there were what we now call full-service estate and letting agencies, and...

Nested, the chain-breaking estate agency that offers vendors a guaranteed sale of their property within 90 days, is to expand beyond...

I’ve been in France for the past few days and depending on your viewpoint, I made a spectacularly good or singularly...

It’s not just the evenings drawing in that marks the approach of autumn - it’s also the return to work of...

The stock exchange seems to be on everyone’s lips at the moment. There’s Agents’ Mutual seeking to float on the Alternative Investment...

During a week in which fledgling trade group the Charter for Independent Estate and Letting Agents (CIELA) announced that it still...

The on-off-on saga of the fledgling trade group for independent agents has taken another twist. The founder of the organisation suggests that...

When it comes to provoking anger in property professionals, taxation takes some beating. Press releases are still arriving berating the December...

The National Association of Estate Agents says its election for a new vice president is to go ahead as scheduled despite...

The banning of letting fees levied on tenants has dominated the industry headlines in recent months but this election campaign suggests...

Graham Norwood, who edits Estate Agent Today and Letting Agent Today, has won the title of Social Media Influencer of the...

It’s that time of year again – peak conference/event season. And, while Brexit and a shock snap general election are dominating...

Purplebricks' share price moved up over two per cent yesterday on the strength of its latest trading statement - but its...

Odds are that you use TripAdvisor when you book a restaurant or hotel; perhaps you scroll down Amazon before clicking ‘buy...

A record number of over 300 agents have so far signed up for next week’s FUTURE: PropTech conference, the largest event...

The new chief executive of the Guild of Property Professionals has accused some online agents of carrying out “aggressive” marketing campaigns...

My apologies if this causes you to break your Easter egg with a little too much aggression, but I reckon the...

Good wishes for a happy Easter for everyone in the industry from Estate Agent Today, and from our publisher Angels Media. Our...

A debate on customer service in the agency industry has been arranged for later this month between leading lights from both...

There’s good and bad in every industry and at first sight, this week has been one where the good have won...

Estate Agent Today and its sister publications published by Angels Media feature strongly on the long-list for the 2017 Property Press...

We’re almost nine months on from the EU Referendum and yet the issue remains the big divide across the nation: an...

I had a very interesting chat with the man behind a new portal the other day. He was John Dixon, the portal...

It’s over. Done. The only ones interested are those with too much time on their hands. For God’s sake - behind...

Property4Media , an online service for journalists, has acquired the annual Property Press Awards. This year’s event will take place in late...

The story of the week has been the first steps of a trade body to represent independent estate agents - as...

Now I’m not one to lose sleep over politicians, but it strikes me that Communities Secretary Sajid Javid and Housing Minister...

Forecasts are so last year: who anticipated Bowie, Brexit or Balls for example? Quotes, on the other hand, really ARE last year...

Let me set out my stall from the beginning. Firstly with two buy to lets managed by an agency, I understand and...

Forecasts are a tricky business. And as I wrote in a recent Industry Views opinion piece, any prediction in the current...

Although Brexit, portal juggling and portal wars have stolen property industry headlines in recent months, there's been one story almost constantly...

Graham Norwood recently wrote that it’s going to be harder than ever to predict the shape of the property market in...

I hate to be a party-pooper, but one of the agency industry’s coming-up-to-Christmas traditions is going to be particularly hard to undertake...

Some of this week’s headlines - ‘Firms must list foreign workers’ and ‘NHS to no longer rely on foreign doctors’ -...

As the PropTech industry continues to expand, with dedicated events and more innovative startups entering the world of UK property, online...

It’s been a heartening few weeks for those of us who thought that protest was dead – or, more precisely, that...

It’s a headline from an Australian business journal this week but it has a familiar ring to it: “Estate agents’ attempts...

If you want an indicator that the United Kingdom isn’t so united any more, have a look at Right To Buy. The...

This week, 25 years ago the world's first website went live to those of us who were around then.  Amazingly, despite the...

Older readers may recall a terrific movie called Network where a character, disillusioned by life, shouts from a window: “I’m as...

I’m indebted to one of the most enthusiastic estate agents I’ve had the pleasure of meeting for suggesting the subject of...

We’re used to remarkable changes in just a short time - a week ago, who would have thought Theresa May would...

So what is it with young people failing to stand up for themselves and not making the most of their money...

I wish it were otherwise, but there’s a crisis just beginning to sweep over newspapers – with, a bit beneath the...

By accident or design, the PR machine at OnTheMarket was beefed up last week.  Just as well. With the portal still reeling...

It’s all too easy to look sleazy in the eyes of a sceptical world, and there’s a danger right now that...

Despite being round the block quite a few times in the property world, it was only in 2008 that the importance...

Estate Agent Today’s editor Graham Norwood has won a Gold award as Property Blogger of the Year at the prestigious annual...

When it comes to Budgets and Property, you have to hope that the old adage that ‘things happen in threes’ turns...

And so it begins. Four months and counting before we vote to leave or remain. For a country apparently so divided about...

As we all know, Peter Redfern is critical to the future of the British housing market and.... What? Wait? You don’t know...

Public relations used to be a minor part of estate agency, something only ‘the big boys’ paid for and with little...

And so it begins. The first anniversary of OnTheMarket’s launch was inevitably going to bring a further skirmish in the portal...

EAT returns on Monday January 4 when we - and the rest of our industry - are back to work for...

There’s been plenty of forecasting in recent weeks - banks, consultancies and high-end estate agents have predicted house prices in the...

It’s time to take a pause, to reflect and put into context—and what a year it has been for our industry...

We know that many agents will be shutting up shop at the end of today for a well-earned Christmas break -...

The possibility of agents having to keep offices open until 7pm from next summer to accommodate late key releases has put...

Once you go beyond the industry’s anger about the Chancellor’s three per cent stamp duty surcharge – and that’s an anger...

I make no apologies for returning to Build To Rent, the institutional investment in building and managing blocks of flats to...

A reader of Industry Views is unlikely to need converting to the virtues of buy to let, but anyone involved in...

Property journalists, and more than a few estate agents, are beginning their annual autumn ritual – forecasting what’s going to happen...

The big online estate agencies appear to have come of age. No, no - I'm not saying they're good, bad, better or...

If there’s one thing that looks like a good move right now, it’s becoming a letting agent.  Whereas some years ago we...

It’s become almost obligatory for start-ups in many industries – frequently online agents in the selling and letting business – to...

I received a call from a prominent agent known to many in the industry this week, asking an unexpected question: he wanted...

There is a very interesting but easily-overlooked piece of information at the end of the National Trading Standards Estate Agent Team’s...

Two interesting developments in the past week have shown how established parts of the agency industry - on either side of...

Online agency and DIY sales platform Settled claims on its website that traditional agents charge commission of up to 3.5% +...

This month has marked a real change in the way the private lettings sector is perceived - and it’s a perception...

OK, you’ve had your fun. Now let’s leave the regulators regulate and work for the public. If you don’t know what I...

So, a sigh of relief.  Most agents will be pleased with the election result - even if they are not Tory supporters...