Leslau: tech to have ‘devastating’ effect on agents 

Nick Leslau, chairman of Prestbury and an EG TechTalk Academy judge, has predicted that tech will have a “devastating” impact on some property agents. Outlining what he was looking for when judging entries for the £150,000 investment, he said he saw office leasing as an area of the industry as ripe for disruption. “I think tech is going to have a quite devastating effect in some areas of property. Take the world of agency, smaller offices in London, for example. Finding offices and small office spaces is quite hard work,” he said. “The problem for the agencies is that this area of work doesn’t make very much money. Agencies tend to put the newest, least experienced member of staff on to the job of finding a 2,000 sq ft requirement. By the time you have got through the whole leasing business, it’s not terribly efficient and I do not see why we shouldn’t be clicking and occupying in due course.” Having started investing in proptech for the first time a year ago, Leslau said that the scalability of an idea was what would most likely attract him to an entry. “In the space in which it is or wants to operate, will this idea have a genuine value or does it just increase efficiency a bit here and there? What we are interested in is something that is scalable and transferable. If it works in this market, will it work in other markets? We’re not just looking for a good idea, we’re looking for a good idea that has a big end game to it,” he added. To send feedback, e-mail david.hatcher@egi.co.uk or tweet @hatcherdavid or @estatesgazette