As featured in ShowHouse: 11th November 2020 by Isla MacFarlane
Spring is a new residential home buying service with circa £300 million in annual home buying capacity, unlocking sales for developers in a challenging market.
Spring acts as the property purchaser and takes on full responsibility for the purchase of the consumer’s home and onward transaction. It is totally transparent, with the Spring price promise meaning that if it subsequently sells the home within six months for a higher price than the valuation, it will pay the seller the difference (less the home buying fee).
Spring aims to give just one price to the majority of the properties it engages, removing the multiple price drops historically associated with buying firms.
Formerly known as National Property Trade, the business has relaunched with new funding in place and a new business model, typically paying full market value for the property with circa 10-15% in fees, allowing for greater transparency, higher offers and increased ease of use for sellers. The executive team at Spring has over 40 years of collective high level business experience across property, corporate finance and e-commerce.
Homes sold to Spring do not need to be renovated or prepared for sale, with Spring able to make an initial offer for most properties within 48 hours, completing in as little as seven days or a date that that suits the seller, giving them the freedom to make their move. Spring also cuts down on the number of viewings required to sell a home – most properties will require just one physical visit by a RICS Surveyor.
Spring can actively support both agents and property developers with sales and part exchange programmes, particularly with unlocking time-consuming chains. Its level of funding, believed to be one of the highest in the UK for this type of business, provides the ability to complete on transactions quickly, allowing partners to make their sales and commission. Spring takes a unique and bespoke approach to partnerships – whether acting as a full part-exchange provider with end to end support or as a consultant that can advise on funding, customer experience and marketing.
New research conducted by leading consumer insights company Atomik Research on behalf of Spring, looking at 1,000 sellers who had sold a home in the past 24 months, reveals that 47% of respondents had experienced an offer falling-through, while 24% had to change their completion date to accommodate the buyer.
The research also reveals that the average UK home sale took eight and half months to complete from the day the property was placed on the market, with an average of eighteen viewings undertaken. Reflecting a desire to ‘just get on with it’, 28% of sellers also stated they would have been willing to pay up to 10% in fees for the guarantee of a quick sale, with 10% willing to pay over 10%.
Cormac Henderson, CEO of Spring, said: “For those who are stuck in a chain or have had deals fall through, it can be an extremely stressful and frustrating time. The open market does not serve everyone and ultimately we want to give sellers the choice – for some people the certainty of a guaranteed sale at a fixed price and time is worth the concession in fees.”
“At a business to business level, we see our service as an additional item in the sales toolkit for agents and developers, as evidenced by our existing partnerships with a range of leading operators. We are actively looking to develop a panel of trusted agent partners, with our backing allowing us to structure bespoke deals and agreements to help unlock sales at various levels of the market.”
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