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Zoopla Lettings Advisory board
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Established in 2020, our Lettings Advisory Board is made up of leading industry figures from estate agency and the wider private rental market.
The Board meets regularly to discuss emerging market trends and to identify how technology, innovation and better insights can improve the rental market experience for the benefit of all – renters, landlords and estate agents.
Zoopla is a leading UK property website where consumers look to find homes to rent and buy, with hundreds of thousands of homes for rent at any one time.
Renters are an important group and market pressures have made finding rented homes harder in recent years. This is on top of changing and often complex regulations that vary across the countries of the UK.
We established the board to give a dedicated focus to the continuous improvement of the renter experience, as well as boosting efficiencies for agents operating in lettings and property management.
The board is focused on emerging trends in the rental market and how Government policies might shape the market and its various sub-markets, improving the education of renters and industry stakeholders while also identifying and promoting areas to improve standards and the overall quality of rented housing.
The board is chaired by Nicola Thivessen of Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward and supported by Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla.
The estate agents represented on the board let and manage over 300,000 homes a year. In addition, the board has experts in dispute resolution, regulation and lettings compliance, as well as new technologies that support a more efficient rental market – from deposits, to software for estate agents.
We’re also delighted the National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA) is a Board member to represent the private landlord, half of whom let and manage their own rented homes.
Nicola Thivessen (Chair) (Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward)
Richard Donnell (Co-Chair) (Houseful)
Carrie Alliston (Hunters)
Ben Beadle (National Residential Landlords Association)
Kristjan Byfield (The Depositary and Base Property)
Michael Cook (Leaders Romans Group)
Kevin Day (Connells)
Julie Ford (property expert in mediation and dispute resolution)
Maxine Fothergill (Amax Estates & Property Services)
Stephen Geran (Zoopla, part of Houseful)
Owen Rogers (Alto, part of Houseful)
Eric Walker (The Property Franchise Group)
The lettings market is an important part of the housing market. Rented homes are a flexible tenure and support labour mobility and economic growth. There are as many renters moving home each year as home owners, at around 1 million moves.
The average renter is staying longer in their home between moves – and this now averages 4 years, but for some households these moves can be more often. Private landlords are the biggest group in the sector, owning around 4 in 5 rented homes.
Recent surveys show the vast majority of renters are satisfied with their renting experience and the quality and condition of their property. However, there is a sizable minority for whom the experience of renting has room for improvement.
The rental market has been under growing pressure due to slower levels of new investment in supply since tax changes introduced in 2016. The overall stock of private rented homes hasn’t grown since 2016.
The social housing sector hasn’t grown in size for 30 years. The strength of the labour market, increased student numbers and higher mortgage rates have added to the demand for rented homes, which has been very high in the post-pandemic years. This has pushed rents up faster than earnings, creating pressures on renters on low incomes.
Rental reforms have been proposed for England to give renters more rights and protections which are set to return to Parliament under the new Government.
No – others are effective at lobbying policy makers, but we feel it’s important that as industry practitioners at the heart of the lettings market we describe the best initial routes to get improved standards and experience for renters.
These aren’t comprehensive, but provide focus for policy makers and those proposing changes to make a better rental market.
The power of the ZLAB is that we are joining a major consumer facing brand and business in Zoopla that seeks to empower renters to make better decisions, with the industry that manages these homes and creates the tenancies and deals with the ongoing management of these homes.
Zoopla’s sister business Alto delivers market-leading software that estate agents use to run their business including lettings progression and a richer experience for renters.
The ZLAB is considering the end-to-end lifecycle, looking at how technology can help improve the market for all.