A PropTech platform that empowers landlords to control the rental lifecycle, on their terms.
Business overview
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Social media | |
| Website | www.noagent.co.uk |
| Sectors | Property Digital B2C |
| Company number | 08845607 |
| Incorporation date | 15 Jan 2014 |
Idea
Introduction
We have created a fully digital property management platform that automates the entire rental process, putting landlords in control at every step, making it faster, easier and cheaper for them to let and manage their properties.
We are experiencing excellent traction of the platform and are 3 months ahead of our customer acquisition plan. Since product launch we have 3,000+ registered users, and over the past 5 weeks from 4th November 2016 our blended cost per registered user has fallen by 96%.*
No Agent is Chaired by Gillian Kent (ex CEO Microsoft MSN and PropertyFinder which sold to Zoopla). CEO has experience as an entrepreneur and as a landlord.
*based on unaudited management accounts.
Intended impact
PROBLEM
• Overpriced market
Landlords pay high fees to traditional letting agents
We calculate that the average landlord will pay £1,947 Y1
Tenants can pay £350 in fees.
• Under-serviced market
Lettings agents are often slow and unresponsive, inflexible to landlord and tenant needs.
Speed to complete repairs can be slow and expensive.
• Complex legislation
Regulatory requirements are difficult for landlords to navigate and keep up to date with
Tenancy issues can be tricky and stressful
SOLUTION
End to end digital management platform for landlords
• Saves landlords money
New accessible fee model that passes on actual cost benefits.
Average can be £1,600 to the landlord in the first year.
• Saves landlords time
No Agent automates processes. No waiting for traditional agents. The system eliminates human errors and delays. Available 24/7.
• Reduces risk
One click compliance. Notifications & reminders at the right time. With the support of a property manager and legal helpline.
• Zero fees to tenants.
Substantial accomplishments to date
Ahead of our angel investment targets by 3 months
• 3,000+ registered users
• Current Blended Cost Per Lead = £6.63 (reduction of 70.19%)
• Current Blended Cost per User Registration = £6.03 (reduction of 96.99%)
• Landlord Leads per week = 101 (increase of 1022.22%)
• Strong response from industry press including a full page within the Guardian
• Gillian Kent has joined as Chair (previous CEO at Propertyfinder.com - sold to Zoopla and MD at Microsoft MSN).
The Guardian: “The huge cost of using high street firms hits both landlords and tenants. But now there’s an alternative.”
TechCityNews - Invited as one of 20 top UK startups to ElevatorPitchLive16.
TechCityNews - "Value and efficiency also represent the source of inspiration for rental management platform No Agent".
Monetisation strategy
There are additional revenue streams we will look at such as providing landlords with a ‘pick and mix’ of optional services. We provide a full menu of services that the landlord can choose to use if they wish, or they can source their own solution. These include: No Agent managing the viewings for the landlord, arranging professional photography and floorplans, organising gas safety certificates, the EPC and providing maintenance options, all supplied at transparent highly competitive prices. There is also the opportunity to provide a wide range of insurance products to both landlords and tenants.
Use of proceeds
We are seeking £350k seed investment to grow the business further and we aim to achieve 1,150 subscribed properties, prior to seeking Series A investment. The funds are to be used for working capital, scaling our online marketing and bringing more product development resource in house.
A simple budget split in year 1 will be:
Payroll - 31.5%
Product development - 10.1%
Marketing - 37.3%
Rent and Rates - 8.2%
Admin Expenses - 13.0%
Market
Target market
Most landlords use estate agents to rent out their properties. In a recent survey by Homelet 87% of landlords surveyed said they use letting agents.
This market is highly fragmented with 18,000 branches offering local services. We believe that with a fixed cost base for property rents and rates, high marketing costs and a reliance on people and manual processes, its no surprise that the fees they charge are high and their service levels are low.
Dissatisfaction levels are rising with this traditional model with over 8,474 complaints to the property Ombudsman in 2014 and an £80m class act lawsuit underway against Foxtons.
Add to this the upcoming change in tax on mortgage interest and we believe landlords are looking for lower cost management options in order to maximise their profits.
Characteristics of target market
The private rental market in the UK is a significant growth market. A recent PwC report indicates that the number of households in the private rented sector has more than doubled since 2001 and project that this trend will continue with a further 33% increase in privately rented homes over the next 15 years resulting in 25% of all households who will privately rent.
There are currently 8.3million rental properties in the UK, of which our serviceable addressable market is the private rental market which accounts for just over 50% of this at 4.2million properties.
Marketing strategy
Events & Exhibitions: Property Investment Networks up and down the country. Regional property shows, exhibit and sponsor.
Partnerships: including landlord associations, financial advisors, service providers, blogs.
Education marketing: use social media, PR and traditional media to create a marketplace of savvy landlords who want to save time, money & reduce risk
Growth hacking: we have teamed up with a very smart group of marketers to explore how we can drive down the cost per acquisition of users. This so far has resulted in great numbers and we will be scaling into these channels.
Competition strategy
Recent entrants to the market such as Purple Bricks and Rentify are offering a partial technology solution, but we believe they are more like traditional estate agents with digital wheels. Some of the process is automated but they require landlords to phone in for key stages to be completed manually such as at set up, and listing and marketing the properties.
We believe that our superior technology end to end self serve platform, combined with the high level of service provided by our property managers and lower cost model places us in a winning position in the market.
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