00:04:58 · Matt Goddard
[00:04:58] S1: I think even that. So the autumn statement announced an increase on the tax on rental income, didn't it? It was another plus two percent. So um it's a another chunk out of any any money that might be made if you if you even are turning a profit as a as a landlord. So you mentioned twenty thousand, what about if you've got um eleven or one or two? Um the thing is it's the it's the good landlords that are being driven out. You know, the rogues are gonna continue being rogues and roguing it up. Yeah, exactly, and just continuing to advertise and shop windows and doing dodgy stuff, and um it will, I suppose inevitably drive rents up as well, right? Because there'll be a scarcity of properties.
00:05:37 · Mal McCallion
[00:05:37] S0: Yeah, 100%. All right, well, we will um continue as ever to uh to keep our eyes on this, but yes, hopefully some sense will be seen along the way. And yeah, if you could continue reference, that'd be uh much appreciated. Please, thanks. Um, all right. Next up we are going um down under. So um we are going to uh have a look at a case that has been brought by CoStar, who owned Domain out in Australia, and they have uh they launched a legal case against REA Group. So REA is the uh the right move of Australia, realestate.com.au, and Domain is the kind of number two challenger. Um CoStar acquired Domain, I'm gonna say last year for 1.9 billion. And um they have as CoStar tends to be, they're quite free and easy with the legal cases, bless them. So they've got after REA Group because REA claims in their advertising that nine in ten properties listed for sale on the platform results in a sale, essentially. Uh sorry, nine in ten buyers find a home on the platform. That's the the quote that uh that CoStar and Domain is is challenging. Uh Matt, I know you do some work out there. Um, is this causing some um entertainment? Is our agents kind of up for this? How are they feeling?
00:06:41 · Matt Goddard
[00:06:41] S1: I think I think the main thing is it's more interesting to see these two going at it, right? Because there was a counterclaim came in from REA um to say that when when Domain's parent company CoStar bought Matterport that they were misleading as well. So that they're probably slugging it out. I think the thing that stands out for me down under, as you put it, um and working with Australian New Zealand agents, is more like a focus from a lot of them to get off the portals completely. Um and there's a property portal watch or Prop Tech and Portal Watch to use its rebranded name last week, as you know. And there was a particular presentation from a company showing some of the agents like Nelson Alexander, who've quite a decent size, they put all of their properties on the portals immediately. But actually, some of them, um, Brezick Whitney, I think it is, 40% of their properties never touch the portals. Um, and therefore they've got this focus on sort of email blasts, you sort of your Brezick Whitney firsts, and where you go on the website and it says it's got an icon and logo and and presentation around that, and then social media across there being very much focused on paid adverts and working its way through. So I don't think this is creating as much noise as it would do maybe over here, where obviously I think last week someone was challenging right move stats and um causing a bit of noise. Whereas this this nine out of ten does sound quite significant, doesn't it, in terms of the 90% of the market is finding the property via R.
00:08:00 · Mal McCallion
[00:08:00] S0: Yeah, it almost sounds like yeah, if if you're out there claiming that you're the biggest and and you're not, then that might need some uh need some attention as well. Um so yeah, listen, I I I think that it's it's it's fascinating that this is happening you know all the way across different um geographies. Yeah, we've got Australia um with Domain kind of going after some claims from uh from REO group, as you say over here. We've uh with my port have been challenging right movies. Interesting, over in uh Sweden as well. Um we've looked in, um I think it was last week or the week before, uh, you've introduced free listing. The Hemnet is the the the right move of Sweden. Uhly is this free challenger, free to list challenger, and it's now got more properties, like nearly twice as many properties on it as but as um Hemnet has, the the market leader, because it's free to list. So, you know, to your point about you know coming off the the paid for portals, I think the paid for portals have got real issues because this is a this is a growing um strategy and I would say a correct strategy in terms of of pulling, yeah, don't don't pay for things that you know you you don't need. But there is also your boole, obviously, with us as well, is having an alternative that is free. Actually, you can just then list your properties on uh for free and that gives you the you know the extra logo. Our research, I think a lot of research across the the world does show that if you have the the the chat GBTs and the the large language models, the claws do look for structure in the data that may not be available to every agent. So actually uploading to these other um free portals is is smart. But yeah, you know, looking at your um uh yes, looking around at the at the portals that you're using and which ones are charging and starting to peel those away, I think is smart. But yes, when it comes down to the kind of claims that are made um around and about, I I think a lot of those are going to come under increasing pressure from challenger brands because I think for a long time these these large portals have just been able to say what they like. Nobody either knows or dares to kind of come at them. Um but yeah, I think this is uh this is really interesting. And Compass obviously over in the States uh having big swings at Zillow.
00:09:50 · Mal McCallion, Matt Goddard
You know, the court cases seem endless and numerous over there as well. So it's a um yeah, it's an interesting way of trying to unsettle, I guess, the the kind of market leaders and seeing uh seeing how they respond. All right, next up um on our property news, we've got some innovation from a major agency. So Strutt & Parker, owned by BNP Paribas, Bank Over in France. Um they have uh made some significant investments, haven't they, Matt, in uh in their tech. [00:10:13] S1: They have indeed, and it's um following on from the sort of things where you've been lobbying the portals to do for a while, and certainly you've introduced with my porter, isn't it, which is the natural language search um approach to it and transforming that search approach on the website. And so it's it's Tamara Couchman who um I worked with when she was back at Carter Jonas, has been sort of spearheading this as part of them. And um it's good to see that that following through because it could be quite easy for for website redesigns just to go with the the standard approach, right? Do you have a chance to look at it?
00:10:43 · Mal McCallion
[00:10:43] S0: The tire self, yes, briefly. Um, yeah, look, it it it looks it looks good. I think that there is a a more I think there's a there's a move from some of the larger agencies towards this much more. I think it's really interesting, you know. Again, if you actually think about the kind of um the structure of these and uh do you just show your own properties? What happens if somebody asks a question and there are no properties? That's probably the biggest thing to consider when you're thinking about putting natural language on your own site. You know, how do you actually help people to find something? You know, so if they've asked for a three-bedroom property, you know, um with C View near a um near a golf course and uh and one of those things is not present, you need to have a really natural kind of off-ramp that says, well, you know, if you actually remove this particular golf course requirement, then there are six here, but there are none that exactly match your match your criteria. Obviously, with the larger agencies, I think it's it's much more straightforward for them to at least have something coming through. So yeah, I think for for smaller agents it it's interesting how you it's really important that you think about how that happens. But I think more and more, as we see with Strutt & Parker, as we're gonna see with that with many, many other agents, this idea of people having to fill in boxes, you know, and again going back to what we were saying earlier on about the rental side of things, you know, actually putting in those ticking boxes, sending something, sitting there, waiting for somebody to come back, all that sort of thing. Those days are, you know, if they're not got already, then they are gonna go pretty fast because people just don't will not accept yeah, just having to wait and having to make things more generic than they need to be. They want hyperpersonal, they want things that are gonna be really right for them. Um so yeah, I think we're gonna see much more of these, and I think it's great. But yes, I think anybody listening just needs to kind of think through the whole journey because it is a it's it's quite a big change.