Former Bristol rugby player-turned-entrepreneur Danny Gray has launched a new off-market property app in the city.
Following the end of his playing career the former England Sevens international established estate agency Nexa Properties with his brother Jamie. The business has offices in Bristol, Cardiff, Pontypridd, Liverpool, Chichester and Portsmouth.
The pair, who between them have 30 years’ of experience within the industry, have now founded Zump - a platform which aims to offer a wider selection of properties to prospective buyers and claims to be a cheaper way for sellers to gauge interest in their homes.
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Browsers using Zump are able to view off-market properties that are not currently listed on an online portal or with an estate agent.
According to figures quoted by the business, Zump will allow the more than 114,000 people across BS postcodes who are looking to move house to search a list of 455,000 properties. This is compared to 3,250 properties currently listed on Rightmove.
Mr Gray explained: “There’s currently a huge shortfall in available on-market properties meaning many buyers are unable to find what they want, which deters them from continuing their search and ultimately listing their own property for sale.”
“This, coupled with the fact that formally listing with an estate agent is currently the only way to see who might be interested in your property – an all or nothing approach with expensive fees attached - means many people just don’t bother and end up staying put. Zump is here to break this vicious cycle.”
The app’s features allow buyers to specify certain filters, such as number of bedrooms, value and property type, before flagging available off-market properties in a specified location.
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Homeowners considering selling are able to share their property on Zump for free, with any connections made with buyers supported by Zump’s property advisors, who act as a point of contact for completing the sale.
Mr Gray said a "lack of choice" and "too many barriers" for owners to enter the market passively had led to a “bottle neck” in an industry that needed fixing.
He said: “Our mission is to help more people find and connect with the properties they love. We’ve built our tech to allow this to happen wherever you are in Bristol, which we believe is an ideal launch pad for us.
“It’s a sizable city that has a real vibrancy and an open-mindedness that we think will resonate with an innovative and disruptive new brand like us.
“Whether it’s Bedminster or Gloucester Road, Redland or Brislington, we want to connect the people of Bristol through our app so that they can choose their favourite pocket of the city in which to call home and build new memories.”
Following the rollout in Bristol, Mr Gray said he hoped to expand Zump’s services across “the rest of the 海角视频 and overseas”.
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