French Challenger Bien'Ici Confident of 52% Growth Target as Cheap Listings Packages Fuel Agency Signups

French real estate portal, Bien'ici, has revealed that the lengthening time to sell properties has raised the stakes for its clients in finding solvent buyers.

In an interview with local agent publication Journal de l'Agence, CEO Cyril Janin said that some real estate agencies have not sold anything for up to three months, meaning many are more amenable to paying for new portal subscriptions.

In December 2022, Bien'ici signed a record 304 new agencies thanks to the platform's "agency package," which offers a competitive price of €249 per month for a package that includes 100 listings.

The company claims that this has made the return on investment rapid and risk-taking limited, which has been ideal for real estate agents struggling in the market. Since the beginning of the year, Bien'ici has also included the possibility of publishing job offers on the site of its partner, Recrutimmo, in its agency package.

Janin, who was promoted to his position in May last year, said that the company aims to help professionals capture sales mandates and generate more business. In January, Bien'ici launched a prospecting map integrating, in real-time, the estimates made by individuals on properties, allowing professionals to collect qualified sales leads.

Bien'Ici also intends to launch new services in the coming months, including tools that would enable real estate agents to offer properties for renovation to developers interested in the land.

Bien'Ici counts SeLoger (owned by AVIV Group) and A Vendre A Louer and Leboncoin (owned by Adevinta) as its major competitors in the market. Janin revealed that the portal currently has over 12,600 customers and is around 6,000 behind the #2 portal in the French market. Bien'Ici has a target of 52% traffic growth in 2023 which the company is confident of reaching.

Having been founded by some of the leading French real estate market stakeholders including some of the big agency players. the platform's clientele has become more diverse over the years, with only a third of clients currently coming from its founding networks and the remaining two-thirds coming from independent real estate agencies.