Hybrid letting agent eyes Northern and overseas expansion

The hybrid agent, which has no branches, launched in 2016 with a focus on providing a cheaper and more transparent service to landlords and tenants than a high street agent.

Hybrid letting agent eyes Northern and overseas expansion

London letting agent Home Made wants to expand up North next year and eventually go abroad, its founder Asaf Navot has revealed.

The hybrid agent, which has no branches, launched in 2016 with a focus on providing a cheaper and more transparent service to landlords and tenants than a high street agent.

Navot (pictured) said: “We are looking to expand outside of London next year.

“it’s not just the size of the market [we’re looking at], it’s our likelihood of winning in that market.”

Later, when asked about what the ‘end game’ was for Home Made, he added: “We definitely see ourselves going outside the UK or going into other markets.”

Navot said business levels at the agent are growing by 25% every month, as he targeted achieving over a thousand transactions this year.

He indicated that the agent would become profitable in three to four months’ time.

Navot added: “The market now is in a place where more and more people need to rent and agents struggle to provide good customer service and good quality solutions, especially when they are facing significant pressure from the regulator.

“At the same time private landlords are facing even more pressure to cut costs and this is where we fit – in this gap in the market.”

Navot claimed that Home Made offers a ‘premium estate agency service’ between 50-90% cheaper than the high street.

It has no branches and operates from call centres and online, means the service is cheaper to run.

Home Made’s agents are streamlined in the way they travel, as Navot claimed they can handle showing tenants around four to eight properties a day rather than two or three.

The letting agent has a particular focus on monitoring illegal subletting, which Navot said is “is reaching an epidemic proportion” in Central London. It has built its own tech solution which is said to flag issues early.

Tenants using the agent are pre-qualified and reference checked, while Home Made monitors typical rents in the area so landlords are given an idea of how much they should charge.

The fees paid by landlords and tenants are transparent at the point of application, a point Navot was vocal about.

He said: “We want to become the most trusted provider of property solutions. Trust is a big thing – not the largest or most profitable; the most trusted.

“Trust is the word that’s missing in this industry – nobody trusts estate agents.”