60 second interview: Mark Daruvalla

What does it say on your business card? Managing director, CFP Software

Where are you based? Redruth, Cornwall – but we cover the country

What does your business do? We supply lettings, property management, accounting and estate agency software to over 2,000 firms. We have more than 9,000 users, making us market leader in our field. We’re part of Guardian Media Group Property Services.

What are your software products? Our best-known product for agents is CFPwinMan, but for commercial agents we have CFPwinEstate, while CFPcommercial is for block management agents, and for holiday letting agencies there’s CFPholidayLets.

How many people do you employ? Just over 70, including 13 dedicated solely to developing new and existing products, while 20 people are at the end of a helpline. We also have eight trainers who cover the UK.

What are the big issues? In lettings, it has to be licensing. If licensing of landlords is introduced in England and Wales, the Government needs to be clear on its objectives. I hope lessons will have been learnt from Scotland, where landlord registration has been criticised as not coming up to expectations. As far as licensing of the industry is concerned, I am delighted to see the debate about regulation of letting agents, which will ultimately protect the reputation of good agents, as well as the rights of tenants. I hope that the debate grows, with feedback and input from key industry bodies and players, to ensure a workable, successful format for the future.

What about estate agency trends? The rise of the ‘micro agent’ has been a marked phenomenon in the last year. We have seen many new companies opting to work from a virtual office, be it in a garage, bedroom or industrial estate, without any high street presence. I predict a steady growth in the number of such businesses, but some agents who have entered the lettings market recently will go out of business: they will have made false economies, including on their software, failed to be legally compliant, and will not have offered a sufficiently good service to their clients. We have also seen a lot of agents move into property management.

Anything else? I also agree that managing agents should be subject to mandatory regulation to raise standards and benchmark good practice. The latter point on good practice has influenced the development of our software packages since day one, some 20 years ago. We have recently invested considerable resource in gaining accreditation for our software from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and we work closely with other regulatory bodies to ensure everything that can be done is done in our software, to promote best practice among property managers. 

How interested are you in property? Very! I am also a private landlord with three properties – all managed by agents.

Best aspect to the job? Being in Cornwall. It’s a wonderful lifestyle here all year round and you’re never far from a beach.