Property Portal Watch Roundup: Day One

The Online Marketplaces Property Portal Watch Conference 2022 opened today, with 300 attendees from around the world meeting in Europe for the first time since 2019.

A select section of attendees were treated to a private masterclass session run by Online Marketplaces’ Simon Baker on Tuesday in which they learned everything about how to build a transaction focussed marketplace. 

To kick off the action this morning, Online Marketplaces’ Simon Baker introduced industry experts Malcolm Myers, Andrew Rechtman and Konstantin Kalabin who spoke candidly about the past, present and likely future of real estate verticals — with a particular focus on how portals may transition into more transactional models as the sector becomes more competitive.

Myers and Rechtman both sang the praises of emerging BBYS (Buy Before You Sell) models that solve the problem of longer, weaker chains, while Kalabin highlighted the fact that lead qualification remains a human-first exercise, with phone calls still the best way of identifying the best prospects.

Afternoon speakers included Artem Umanets, chairman at Ukrainian portal Dom.Ria, who spoke about how the Ukrainian portal verifies its property listings.

Iovox, the conference’s gold sponsor, then delved into the revenue potential of call-tracking AI, which can translate buyer and seller phone calls into data in real time.

Jaroslaw Swiecicki, CEO at Polish marketplace Morizon.pl, explained the journey his company has been through in merging with the competition, Gratka.

Andrey Mima, CEO and cofounder at Ukraine-based Flatfy Group, told the story of managing a business in a crisis, including salary management during periods of limited income, and how to best manage cash reserves to sustain the business.

Interestingly, Flatfy boosted its income from international operations to 50% of its total revenue while the Ukrainian market stalled.

Mima also outlined the Homes Of War project, which is running initiatives including window-replacements for destroyed properties as winter sets in. The link to donate is below:

United24 was set up by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The final panel of the day featured Ricardo Frechou, CEO at Infocasas, and Ben Neve, CEO and founder at Net Ventures—who discussed emerging global markets in the property portal space. Frechou noted that many marketplaces act too slowly to build revenue and secure their position in new spaces.

After a long day of talks and networking, delegates will be decamping to the swanky Fortuny Bar to sample some Madrid nightlife and enjoy some drinks put on by our silver sponsors Portal Ventures and Floorfy.