Two Firms Claiming to Have Built the UK's MLS

Blockchain-based challenger portal OpenBrix has this week announced its pricing structure for agents. It will be charging £75 per branch per month, and a £1 per property upload fee. Interestingly, the startup will also operate a multi-listing-system (MLS) for which agents will pay £55 a month to be part of. OpenBrix CEO Adam Pigott, who we interviewed two weeks ago as part of our UK Challenger Series, took the opportunity to say that his company was “pioneering the UK’s first multi-listing service”.

It seems though that OpenBrix may not be the only British company trying to create an MLS. Estate Agent Today is reporting that agency software company Agent Hub is also touting its own version which, according to the marketing text on the firm’s website, “has the potential to bring together every type of professional across the property industry.” Interestingly, given that these two outfits may well be building rival products, Agent Hub also announced that its CRM software has recently been updated to integrate with a list of UK portals which includes OpenBrix. 

The holy grail of an MLS along the lines of the model used across the USA has long been a goal for many companies across the globe who have sought to centralise housing data to make life easier for agents. It remains to be seen whether either of these two companies can get the critical mass of subscribers and data to make such a product viable in a country like the UK where there has not been a centralised system for housing data until now.