OnTheMarket has a new owner CoStar Group who looks to become the UK’s number one property portal

With more than nine out of every ten existing shareholders in OnTheMarket, the present third largest property portal in the UK, voting to accept the sale of the business to CoStar Group, it is beginning to look an awfully like Christmas for a lot of estate agents and othe property practitioners who have been held hostage to eyewatering increases in their annual licence fees from the present number one property portal.

In my analysts head, this 90% stamp of approval seems like a landslide of common, and much good will flow from this. From all property portals now becoming super sensitive to their client needs, to portals themselves opening new lines that support better the obvious digital transformation of real estate that is moving at pace.

I held no shares in OTM, and have no commercial tie with Jason Tebb, but he definitely is a person who understands property and his client base, possibly his property background unlike other portal CEO’s who lack this vital ingredient gives him that vital edge.

As someone that is deeply involved in property technology, the digital transformation of real estate, this huge shake up is just what was needed to speed many of the change in numerous business operations in the UK. Having a number of clients globally, but probably with America as a main source, for years I could see that a large player would cross the pond and look to seize the sizeable opportunities here.

The CoStar Group are of course in the UK already, but the purchase and full funding of OnTheMarket will give them both a distribution channel and as in America if they are able to climb to the top spot, there is capacity for enormous annual and repeatable profits and the delivering of new marketplaces.

Once again we see that if you sit at the top, to then not re-invent yourself is a dangerous strategy, one that Rightmove may well regret, two years ago its shareprice was 795p, it dipped to 470p at the news of CoStar moving into the ring in November. And though its share price has recovered a little, it will be interesting to see where the ticker sits by mid-summer 2024. The results for 2023 were already baked in, but next year there will be all to play for, especially with the amount of capital CoStar Group is about to deploy.

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Stafford Railway Building Society partners with climate and energy Proptech PropEco

UK-based lender The Stafford Railway Building Society (SRBS) has partnered with leading climate-tech company PropEco, enhancing its ability to assess energy performance and anticipate the potential impacts of climate change across its mortgage portfolio.

Through the partnership, PropEco will provide a range of data-driven tools and services that help SRBS assess and manage current and future climate risks. The two organisations will also work together to explore opportunities to support members of SRBS, providing insights in areas such as energy efficiency and climate resilience.

Chris Hardman, Co-founder and CEO of PropEco, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with SRBS, which has consistently demonstrated that it is both forward-thinking and fully engaged when it comes to modelling and developing its understanding of the impacts of climate change. We look forward to working with the team to identify further opportunities and deliver additional value for its Members.’

Chris Reid, Finance Director at SRBS, said: ‘Over the past six months we have been working closely with PropEco to support our aim for a more comprehensive set of climate and energy performance data across a broad range of metrics. This is an area which will continue to evolve and we very pleased to be working with PropEco, in particular the flexibility, responsiveness and data coverage that PropEco offers really sets its solution apart.

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Valuing New Build Property and Understanding the New Build Premium

This thought piece by Michael Joyner, Chief Data Scientist at Bricks&Logic focuses on the processes involved in accurately valuing residential properties and assessing the new build premium, focusing on challenges related to data scarcity and unique developments

Introduction ‘As the real estate landscape continues to evolve, understanding the dynamics of property values is becoming increasingly crucial. One area of particular interest lies in the relationship between existing housing stock and newly constructed properties—the phenomenon known as “the new build premium.” In today’s market, where the rise of build-to-rent developments has garnered significant attention, accurately assessing this premium has become more pronounced than ever.’

‘While performing this analysis with abundant direct comparable sales and rental data points for planned developments may be relatively straightforward, it poses a challenge when “creating the market.” This situation arises when your development is the first of its kind in the immediate vicinity or when the last development was built several years ago. In this article, we will explore various types of analysis that can assist in addressing this issue and how Bricks&Logic can provide valuable assistance in accurately assessing even the most data-sparse development opportunities.’

Enhancing the Data ‘Where data is sparse, we need to make the best possible use of it by applying techniques that enrich and make it more relevant to our analysis. This involves updating older data points and finding robust and justifiable methods to equate properties with different characteristics to those we are comparing them against.’

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Andrew Stanton’s PROPTECH-X ‘Proptech & Property News’ in association with Estate Agent Networking & News Now publications. #proptech #property #realestate #digitaltransformation #startups