This week's roundup of new products and services includes AI usage, a data partnership and a brewing fight for supremacy in France...
Homesearch has launched 'HAILO' (Homesearch AI Listings Optimiser), a tool designed to help estate and letting agents make their listings more discoverable through major AI engines.
HAILO integrates with an agent's CRM system, automatically running in the background to send real-time feeds that are sent to portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla. Homesearch has already integrated with industry-leading CRMs, including Reapit, Dezrez and Salesforce.
HAILO then allows property listings and contact details for agents to be more easily discovered by AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot.
According to Homesearch's website:
Your listings are structured, optimised with proprietary data, then stored in an AI-native live database to make them AI-ready. This makes them visible in the AI search tools used by millions every day.
AI is being adopted faster than any tech in history (faster than the internet or smartphones). People use it to find restaurants, holidays, financial advice – and now, property. We're simply putting your listings (and your direct contact details) where the search is moving.
The product does not require manual input. Homesearch says HAILO already has 2,000 agents onboarded, with a free six-month offer for new subscribers. The product will then be charged at £80 per month, per branch, frozen until 2030.
Giles Ellwood, CEO at Homesearch, said:
“AI is driving the most significant positive change for estate agencies in 25 years. It is a huge opportunity for sales and lettings agents. With around 40% of property searches in the US now starting on AI, we expect the UK to quickly follow suit. A lot of agents are worried about what they should be doing and so we’ve created HAILO to future-proof listings for the next era of property search.
“We’ve partnered with a majority of the market’s CRMs to make the process super simple: simply push the button to activate HAILO. It takes less than 20 seconds, and uses the same real-time feeds you already send to the portals everyday from your CRM.
“Following a successful pre-launch phase, we are excited to announce that more than 2,000 branches are already in, and we are offering six-months free to all those who sign up by the end of September.”
Homesearch is a PropTech platform designed to help estate agents secure more listings, unlock market insights, and turn existing contacts into new instructions, providing property data and tools to help agents stay on top of market trends and win new business.ç
A new app-based real estate search platform has been launched in the UK. Founded by former advertising executive Steve Foreman, the new challenger covers listings in London and the surrounding area, with plans to expand
The Property DriveBuy aims to distinguish itself from incumbent portals with its array of search tools. Unlike the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla, the platform automatically collects details of properties for sale close to where the user has passed through, building curated lists around, for example, the user's commute to work.
According to the company's website, The Property DriveBuy operates under the umbrella of parent company PropTech Services and offers British property professionals a wide range of solutions "from advanced property management software and cutting-edge virtual rendering technology to robust data analytics tools".
The AVIV Group-owned French real estate portal SeLoger has announced a series of in-person meetups around the country. The SeRetrouver and SeRéunir meetings are designed for agents to get together and share market data and discuss local issues facing the market.
The latest diary dates, scheduled to begin later this month, are the second leg of SeLoger's nationwide tour, which will take in 45 locations as the portal turns to a tried and tested tactic to win over agents away from its Île-de-France core.
The Paris-based portal is facing a renewed challenge to its market leadership in the form of the Adevinta-owned horizontal player Leboncoin, which has historically been strong in the more peripheral regions of the country.
The Greek real estate portal Plot.gr has announced a partnership with the Cyprus-based property data specialist Ask Wire. According to a press release, the collaboration will see more than 500,000 property listings on the site enriched with analysis, neighbourhood-level statistics, liquidity indicators, and price trends.
Commenting on the partnership, Ask Wire CEO, Pavlos Loizou, said
“Ask Wire collects and analyzes data to provide transparency to banks, investors and insurance companies. With Plot.gr, ads are transformed into a decision-making tool, enhancing accuracy and understanding of market trends."
Grigoris Tsagkalidis, co-owner of Plot.gr, added:
"The next step for us is to implement innovative projects that improve the experience of our users. In this direction, our collaboration with Ask Wire is not limited to the simple exchange of data, but paves the way for new services that significantly enhance both the individual and the professional.”
Launched in 2018, Plot.gr is a real estate portal owned by the popular autos marketplace operator, Cra.gr. The site competes with market-leader Spitogatos as well as the horizontal marketplace XE.gr.
StreetEasy has announced the launch of a new tool to allow rental agents to comply with recent local legislation around fee disclosure. Agents uploading new listings to Zillow's New York portal will now be able to specify fees that prospective tenants would have to pay with fields for fee type, amount, how it’s all calculated, and whether a fee is required or optional, one-time or recurring, and refundable or nonrefundable.
StreetEasy is Zillow's New York-based real estate portal. Where its eponymous Zillow.com portal dominates in the rest of the country, in New York, Zillow Group's market-leading site is StreetEasy, which was acquired by Zillow in 2013.
The Thai real estate marketplace and brokerage operator, FazWaz, has announced a new model designed to help the country's first-time buyers.
FazWaz's new rent-to-own model allows buyers to bypass strict bank loan approval demands and heavy up-front payments by initially renting the property, with a chunk of the monthly rent going towards the final purchase price.
According to a company LinkedIn post, the model sees FazWaz act "as a trusted middleman — solving this market pain point seriously and becoming the first to bring this model to Thailand."
Ready Media Group (RMG), the operator of specialist portals Development Ready and Commercial Ready, has launched a nationwide campaign to celebrate its 10-year anniversary and highlight what it sees as its edge in commercial property marketing.
The campaign, titled 100 Reasons Why We Deliver More, will run across out-of-home and digital channels, showcasing the technology, data and people behind RMG’s platforms.
“Ten years ago, I started RMG because I was frustrated with the way commercial property was marketed. We’ve grown a lot since then, but our philosophy hasn’t changed. Every listing, every campaign, every client interaction is driven by the same principle: care more,” said founder and CEO Nick Materia.
“After a decade, we still show up like it’s Day 1. We care more because we have to. In a crowded digital landscape, others compete for attention. We compete on care — and that’s why our platforms outperform.”
The campaign highlights features such as multi-channel distribution, feasibility and planning documents on every Development Ready listing, SMS-verified enquiries and a focus on quality leads rather than impressions.
RMG’s ecosystem includes its dedicated portals, Development Ready and Commercial Ready, in-house creative studio Rooftop, and InstaDocs, a tool designed to streamline due diligence.
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