Outsourced property viewing industry gathering pace
Outsourced property viewing providers are on the rise, with the UK industry having rapidly established itself. Leicester-based Access2View recently announced its 50,000th accompanied viewing in just under five years and expects to reach 100,000 viewings by the end of 2018. Meanwhile, Viewber has already reported 6,500 viewings and more than 500 customers in its first year. Ed Mead, co-founder of Viewber, said such services were increasingly useful to agents and other industry players who faced increased competition and squeezed margins.
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The outsourced viewings industry looks to have established itself beyond doubt.

One provider, Access2View, has announced its 50,000th accompanied viewing in just under five years.

Ed Mead’s high-profile Viewber, now one year old, has already notched up 6,500 viewings.

Jim Johnston, managing director of Access2View, said: “We’re proud to have hit this milestone. We’re an independent business with no outside investment. We’re completely focused on quality of service and have reinvested all our profits into creating a system that integrates with our customers’ IT platforms.

“Based on the last few months, we expect to hit 100,000 viewings by the end of next year.”

He said customers include letting agents, traditional estate agents, housing associations and landlords, as well as online agents.

Mead said that in the first three months of Viewber going live, there were just 50 viewings undertaken for a handful of clients.

The businesss now has over 500 customers, including lettings, sales and auction businesses, plus property and asset managers.

There are now over 2,200 ‘Viewbers’, with the number growing at around 20 a day.

Highlights of the last year include a request for 188 block viewings in one go; the 30 minutes that was the shortest time between a requested and actual viewing; and the 5.45am request for a viewing at 8.30am the same day, which was duly carried out.

Mead said: “I always knew this service was part of the future and increasingly useful to busy agents and other industry players who face squeezed margins and increased competition.

“Agents, buyers and tenants can now expect service on demand, which is often late, at short notice or at weekends.

“Viewber can help support a business, freeing up teams to spend more time putting deals together and less out on the road.

“It has been a phenomenal year and it’s hard to believe we’ve achieved so much in such a short space of time.”

Below, the two co-founders of Viewber, Marcus de Ferranti, left, and Ed Mead