Peter Ramsey founded Movem in 2013 after losing hundreds of pounds on "seemingly fraudulent deposit deductions". A property reviews website is to embark on a crowdfunding round this week, hoping to raise £200,000 as it builds its offering to letting agents. Movem currently specialises in student rentals, and reviews letting agents, landlords and accommodation in over 95 towns and cities in the UK. However, it is planning to open up to the whole lettings sector. Read the full article on PropertyIndustryEye

Countrywide CEO Alison Platt Countrywide has given Estate Agent Today some early details of how its mix of online and traditional agency services will roll-out over the second half of 2016. At last week’s half-year report to the City, Britain’s largest estate agency group stated that by the end of this year some 25 per cent of its branches across the country would offer what it calls a “multi-channel proposition.” Read the full story on Estate Agent Today Now Read: "Has Countrywide’s trial of online agency really worked, asks Quirk" from Property Industry Eye, which starts: "Countrywide is to roll

Co-founder at University Cribs, Jack Jenkins is also Director at ACM (Atlas Capital Management) A new UK-based property tech startup has been valued at £1.1 million after receiving investments from backers to completely transform the way university students search for and find their lettings, Tech City News Reports. University Cribs provides an online media platform for letting agents and student accommodation providers to share their properties with the student market. Unlike other property letting websites, University Cribs is solely aimed at the student demographic. The search model will simplify and streamline the process of finding housing for students by

Rightmove CEO Nick McKittrick In no uncertainty about its leadership position in the UK, Rightmove has reported revenues of £107.9m for the first half with operating profit up 21 per cent to £80.6m amid record traffic and engagement. In the first half of the year the portal reports it attracted a record 765 million visits, up 15 per cent on last year, resulting in consumers spending 6.3 billion minutes on Rightmove. The company claims a market share of traffic across both desktop and mobile at 77 per cent with the mobile component higher at 81 per cent. It says Rightmove increased the number of high-quality leads it generated for its customers to

Zoopla has partnered with leading technology giant Samsung SDS to bring the online consumer search experience direct to the high street offices of its member agents. The partnership will see Samsung SDS offer agents 40-60 inch, high-bright, digital touch-screen displays inside branches powered by Zoopla listings, creating what the company describes as "the ultimate in-store search tool". The listings content will only relate to the properties available at that specific branch and will enable sales and rental agents to engage and attract buyers, vendors, renters and landlords in-branch with a touch screen solution. Inside the branch agents can engage

CEO and founder of Property Partner Dan Gandesha. Image Credit: Business Insider Australia London property crowdfunding startup Property Partner has laid off 13 employees as part of what it’s calling a restructuring of the business to “focus on our core business proposition”, Business Insider Australia reports. The restructure brings Property Partner’s headcount down from 44 to 31, or a reduction of just over 29%. The startup says in a statement that the layoffs are “a proactive move to improve efficiency and streamline the company’s cost base.” CEO and founder Dan Gandesha said in an emailed statement that there “across the

Beleaguered UK portal OnTheMarket has been ordered to pay £1m in the test case it hoped would vindicate its 'one other portal' rule. According to Estate Agent Today (EAT) three quarters of it is due immediately and the rest by the end of August. OTM parent company Agents’ Mutual sued estate agents Gascoigne Halman and Moginie James for damages in the High Court accusing them of breaking the terms of their agreements by listing properties on more than one other portal. But the agents disagreed and the High Court has now referred the case to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a specialist court for

Co-founders of Settled.co.uk Gemma and Paul Young Hard on the heels of winning financial backing from‘The Garage Soho’ co-founder Thomas Teichman, UK property platform Settled has attracted further investment from Silicon Valley. 500 Startups, an accelerator company founded by a former marketing director for PayPal and based in California, has delivered the additional £1m in funding Settled had been looking to raise earlier in the year. Settled, which claims it has now facilitated the sales of £38 million worth of homes aims to offer owners complete transparency and empower them to both list and sell their property quicker than bricks and mortar agents. Co-founder and chief executive Gemma

Search Office Apace CEO Richard Smith In the UK Rightmove has entered a partnership with office space platform Search Office Space enabling the leading real estate site to include office space listings on its commercial property channel. With more than six million commercial searches every month, Rightmove has been promoting the channel heavily and saw a 30 per cent growth in terms of enquiries from 2014 to 2015. The new partnership will bring 600 hundred selected office properties across London and the UK to Rightmove’s commercial property audience. Founded in 1993 by CEO Richard Smith Search Office Space is the