Despite a record-breaking summer, the property market is showing signs of slowing. Property portal OneDome believes this is due to the impact of the second lockdown in England and the upcoming end to the Stamp Duty holiday.
Babek Ismayil, the founder of OneDome, believes that estate agencies should offset lower activity in the coming months by maximising the revenue per property sold. He says this can be achieved by generating extra revenue from complementary homebuying services such as mortgages and conveyancing.
Ismayil says: “After a very strong summer, during which some agents may have been overwhelmed by the workload, the question now is how can they get the most out of their pipelines as the market slows down?
“Some of the big corporate agencies and larger independents make an additional 40p for every £1 earned in commission through additional homemoving services. Of course, it’s easier for the larger agencies as they have teams dedicated to additional revenue generation, but this is part of the moving process that all agencies should be targeting.”
OneDome points out that hiring more people could help to increase cross-selling opportunities for estate agents, but in such uncertain times expanding the team isn’t a straightforward decision to take. Taking into account that offices will have a maximum number of transactions they are able to handle per month, agents need to consider how that income can be maximised without having to hire more staff.
Technology is the property portal’s solution, as it can help to speed up transactions. Importantly, OneDome adds, this can be achieved in a compliant manner with transparency about how fees are generated.