Founded by two recent university graduates in Newcastle 15 years ago, iamproperty has become a proptech leader and is creating more opportunities for people to be part of driving new innovations in the UK property market
iamproperty is one of the region’s big success stories. It was founded in 2009 by Ben Ridgway and Jamie Cooke to shake up the property market, and they’ve grown it to become a £76m revenue business employing over 650 people.
Now entering its 15th year, a recruitment drive will mark the milestone with 100 new roles being created over the next 18 months. The majority will be based in the North East as well as hybrid opportunities across the UK, bringing in more talent to drive forward an ambitious future vision.
After meeting at Northumbria University and starting careers in the property industry, Ben and Jamie spotted a gap in the market for an auction service to bring more speed and security to transactions. iamsold was created to benefit Estate Agents and consumers, and by 2016 it was the UK’s largest independent residential auction house.
The strategic launches of Medway Law and the Conveyancing Partnership paved the way for growth, with auction transaction volumes breaking records every month – particularly following the Covid pandemic which accelerated the rise of online auctions.
In 2018 the business rebranded to iamproperty, with big plans to modernise the whole buying and selling process. Investments in technology and innovation led to the launch of the UK’s first end to end digital client onboarding and conveyancing platform, with a spate of acquisitions supporting the launches of a cloud-based CRM and lead generation tool, designed to make Estate Agents’ lives easier and help them to grow.
Now as leaders in the proptech space, having made big changes in the industry and with a network of over 6,300 UK Estate Agency branches, iamproperty is on a multi-year journey to bring its latest vision to life, creating an integrated ecosystem of solutions for agents.
Jamie Cooke, Co-Founder of iamproperty, said: “When Ben and I got into the industry we quickly realised that the speed and security that people on all sides of transactions were crying out for just didn’t exist. What initially was such a different concept for Estate Agents to get their heads around has been embraced more than we could have hoped, and auction’s market share is still growing. Supporting our agent network, we’ve sold over £7.5bn worth of property via auction in the last 15 years, and our sales last year made up 1% of all UK property transactions which was a big goal for us.
“Auction’s growth and the results it gets for both agents and consumers was just the start. We’ve built a huge tech operation thanks to some of the best talent, and that paired with our wrap around service gives agents access to the right tools and support to succeed. Our ecosystem vision takes this another leap forward, with the ideas still coming as thick and fast as in the early days to change the moving process for the better.”
For more information on iamproperty and career opportunities visit www.iamproperty.com.
