Archive

If there’s one thing that received a boost as a result of Covid and lockdowns, it’s podcasts – which reached whole...

The current challenges facing the conveyancing sector have put the industry in the spotlight. Here, property expert Colum Smith, Chief Vision...

Estate agents are in a unique position – we handle the meeting of people’s aspirations probably more than any other profession....

Online agent Strike is preparing to name a home seller who will be reimbursed the equivalent of an estate agent fee...

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

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...

EAT readers may have seen a piece in Friday’s property section of The Times about the long-running Simplify saga, which has...

In a first for the Natter, this week's interview is a video affair, with me posing the questions to Stephen Brown,...

Tomorrow sees the Relocation Agent Network’s first in-person conference since 2019.   The event, at the Metropole Hilton in Birmingham, will focus...

The Relocation Agent Network has unveiled its speakers for its national conference and exhibition early next month. Called RAN Live! 2021 it...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak says HM Revenue & Customs will probe any alleged wrongdoing in property purchases included in the so-called Pandora...

Propertymark has spoken out over the Pandora Papers leak scandal, which reveals many elite and super-rich buyers of properties in London...

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has changed its name to reflect the government’s levelling up agenda. The department’s...

There are some parts of the world, including in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, where estate agent isn’t seen as...

Purplebricks will this week reveal the result of almost two years of trials into a new pricing structure.  The details will come...

An estate agent has been accused of charging prospective clients to view a property. The claim has been made on Twitter by...

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

The independent review into the governance of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is calling for comments. Earlier this year RICS was the...

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

First the good news - estate agents are trusted more than politicians and no less than bankers. Now the bad news:...

Purplebricks has removed advertising claims which suggested it sold homes for a higher sum, on average, than rival agencies. The Advertising Standards...

The controversy over the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in the world of property resurfaced over the weekend in a BBC programme. A...

Honesty is a concept that journalists will tell their readers is non-existent for estate agents. Yeah, right! But as the end...

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

Welcome to the start of another week and this catch up on the latest moves within the agency world. Everyone featured here...

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

The Northern Research Group, which has the backing of over 50 Conservative MPs in the north of England, wants the Chancellor...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering an extension to the current stamp duty holiday according to media reports today - and the...

I wanted to take this opportunity to write an advice piece on what we here at Angels Media have found important...

The only certainty at the moment is ongoing uncertainty. It’s something we’ve got used to in 2020, but it’s still not...

It’s fair to say that UK estate agents don’t have the best of reputations, often featuring in the lists of the...

A BBC presenter has used her local newspaper column to mock an estate agency for suggesting fridge magnets be removed to improve...

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

I was asked a question by a German journalist yesterday. What is the biggest lesson German and European PropTech founders can...

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

Housing Minister Chris Pincher and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick stayed well clear of the Dominic Cummings row over the weekend -...

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

A survey shows over a sixth of buyers and sellers have already been deterred because of Coronavirus - and that figure...

Another weekend, another storm: it’s hard to put a smile on your face when winter goes on this long but the...

An analysis of the market share of online agents shows they are on 4.8 per cent - virtually unchanged from the...

For a very long time, it was one of the best ways – if not the best way – of generating...

'It's a recipe, not a menu' is a mantra championed by a host of Keller Williams' millionaire estate agents. But what are...

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

The international estate agency Engel & Volkers is closing its single prime central London office - despite past claims that sales...

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

In the last ten years Google's revenue, largely from pay per click ads (Adwords), has grown by 527% (Source: Statista). In...

Who are you and what does it say on your business card? That depends on which business card. One says ‘Properganda PR,...

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...

A long running property magazine delivered to homes in prime areas of London has shut down with immediate effect. London Property had...

This article was originally written for City AM in response to an article it published attacking letting agents. See more here.  A...

The former chief executive of online agency Emoov has complained to the Mail on Sunday about an article concerning the firm’s...

Purplebricks might have the last laugh - its biggest critic is ditching his High Street office and making his own agency online. Controversial...

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

A maverick estate agent pictured wearing a yellow vest has threatened to mount what he calls a “civil protest” if Brexit...

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

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

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

Last year it was ‘disruptor’ and before that came ‘exclusive’ - now, according to one estate agency at least, the over-used...

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

Last week, the first of a new kind of industry event took place; an open debate between agents and PropTech suppliers. Strong...

The government has used this week’s Conservative party conference to announce a new stamp duty tax of one per cent to three...

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

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

An agent from Cornwall who has waged a long-running campaign against online agencies in general and Purplebricks in particular has been...

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

Respected industry spokesperson Kristjan Byfield is continuing his fightback against the negative coverage of the agency industry in the mainstream press...

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

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

A US TV company is considering making a news programme about Russian involvement in property transactions in the UK and particularly London. The...

Housing minister Dominic Raab took to Twitter to make a Trump-style criticism of trade magazine The Negotiator and its editor, the...

Former estate agent Nick Ferrand has gone public with a new website which says home owners decide when and to whom...

It’s probably unwise to write too much about politics these days. The most fanciful predictions turn out to be less wild...

The BBC says it is to broadcast a special one-hour radio documentary this weekend investigating online estate agencies. The show will go...

It is now an industry truism to say that Alison Platt has transformed Countrywide - but recent evidence, and now doubt...

The consumer affairs correspondent of The Times has savaged High Street estate agents because of the commission they charge when compared...

With the Budget just over a month away, the steady stream of ‘leaks’ continues to grow as journalists and the industry...

A man dubbed as Theresa May’s ‘brain’ when he worked in Downing Street has been invited to speak at the annual...

easyProperty has unveiled details of its relaunch, declaring itself to be the UK’s second largest hybrid estate agency - second only...

Purplebricks’ share price this afternoon dropped to a recent low of 406.50p before recovering to close down about five per cernt...

It’s traditional for estate agents to support each other when they come under attack from the press or public. After all,...

Housing minister Alok Sharma has blocked some of his Twitter followers, accusing them of “abusive language”.   Sharma has a relatively modest 9,169 followers...

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...

Zoopla has been reported as saying hybrid estate agencies will not reach their professed targets of achieving 10 per cent of...

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

Being featured in newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and TV, can be a great way to build...

For my latest Property Natter I have sought the opinions of two well-known property consultants - Michael Day, managing director of...

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

The government has admitted that the three per cent stamp duty surcharge has raked in twice as much as expected. In November...

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

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

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

Next year is likely to be a challenging time for letting agents, following a raft of changes introduced by the government...

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

Rightmove’s commercial director Miles Shipside, who makes relatively few appearances at industry events, is to be a speaker at the NAEA...

Listening to all the coverage of the tenant fee ban, all I hear is consumer groups talking about how some agents...

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...

Right-wing journalist Melissa Kite has used the columns of the weekly political magazine to accuse estate agents of being “like a...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is to expel an estate agent for breaking several of its membership rules.  Dion Beard,...

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

The importance of overseas buyers in underpinning increasing elements of the capital’s housing market and won support from an unlikely quarter...

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

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

The joke doing the rounds last week still seems to be just as relevant this week: “the only man with a...

Journalists often get quick reactions to events from spin doctors helping put out their clients’ messages - and that applies to...

It’s over. A win is a win, whichever side you backed. It’s true that everyone seems a lot less happy than...

Angels Media, publisher of Estate Agent Today, is delighted to welcome on board one of Britain’s top property industry journalists, Marc...

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...

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

Estate agents and journalists don’t always have a lot in common but in a new opinion poll they rank side-by-side in...

The Modern House, the London firm which calls itself “the UK’s first design-focused estate agency” is now selling units on volume...

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

Newspapers and other journalists’ outlets are reporting that rooms in care homes are being offered to purchase as buy to let...

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...

The Sunday Times claims 5,000 estate and letting agents have quit the industry in the past 12 months, while an additional...

Communities Secretary Greg Clark will be sacked if there is no improvement in the number of homes built in the next...

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...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is the latest body to warns its estate agent members that they have a legal...

A London agent wants a change of emphasis at OnTheMarket, claiming the new portal damages estate agents’ reputations, is low profile...

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

A journalist has described the estate agents she has recently dealt with as 'borderline trustworthy' and 'downright agreeable', much to her...

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...