ezylet.com

Having launched in mid 2007, ezylet.com claims to be the fastest growing rental portal in the UK – where the focus is entirely on rental property, not sales. A free-to-participate model is operated – so agents and landlords can advertise their properties for free and tenants can search and contact for free.

ezylet.com is able to do this as supporting revenue streams are generated from subsidiary activities such as services, resources and trade listings. In addition to free listings it also operates premium listings options, where fees are paid for enhanced visibility.

Ownership | Market Position | Key Measurements | Market Coverage | Advertising Model | Financials | Site Sections | Technology | Key Management | History | Recent Press | Information Sources

Ownership
ezylet.com is a private company, supported by a number of individual investors. Paul Foy (founder and chairman) is the majority shareholder with a 77% holding. Company executives and staff account for a 6% holding, with the remaining 17% held by others.

Market Position

ezylet.com maintains a lettings only focus (no sales), free-to-participate model, provision of value adding services & resources and by catering for tenants, letting agents and landlords on an inclusive basis. It operates in the UK, with test sites for Spain and the UAE. It claims to be the fastest growing rental portal in the UK.

Key Measurements

• A healthy mix of both private landlords and letting agent companies are registered users of the site – where agents represent the greatest % of the overall properties
• In September 2008 held a total database of >44,000 properties of which circa 9,000 (20%) are available.
• Current search counts show a level in excess of 50,000 searches per month

Market Coverage

Current focus is the United Kingdom – use of the integrated mapping facility on the site, used at the high scale level will show you geographical spread/reach of properties represented on the site across the UK.

Behind the use of UK Postcode to locate each property is the use of longitude and latitude coordinates. This enables the model to be easily adapted to any country/region in the world. As test case the company have loaded a number of properties in Spain and the UAE.

Advertising Model

ezylet.com operates a free-to-participate model – letting agents and landlords can advertise their properties free of charge on the site, as a ‘normal listing’. Tenants use/browse and connect via the site with letting agents and landlords free of any charge. Revenues from the site are generated when:

1. Agent or landlord upgrades their properties to a premium listing (EzyAds) – charge is duration dependant; rates between £1.99 and £2.95/day.

2. The EzyAdvantage section on the site is a collection of services and resources that attract a charge (for instance Insurance, Utilities, Communications and Finance). Commissions and procurement fees from associated transactions generate a second revenue stream.

3. A trades section (in development Sept. 08) will generate revenues from listings and from ‘job bid’ matching services. Trades people premium listing and bid applications are the revenue sources.

Financials

ezylet.com is a privately owned company – revenues are not disclosed.

Site Sections

Key sections within ezylet.com are:

• Search – for properties to rent by town, city, postcode etc
• Advanced search (Properties) – by price, property type, number of bedrooms etc.
• EzyAdvantage – Services like Utilities, Communications, Finance, Insurance, Management tools etc.
• Blogs – property related
• Forums – specific interest forums (Tenants, Landlords etc.)
• Groups – associate/communicate with likeminded people
• Take a Tour – site explanation/demonstration
• Pages specifically for Agents, Tenants, Landlords and Students

Technology

The site is built on an OPAL technology platform, which is based upon Oracle, PHP, Apache and Linux.

Key Management

Biographies for each of the key management staff listed below can be found at ezyletltd.com:

• Paul Foy – Founder and Chairman
• Fintan Lawler - Strategy
• Bob Bowden – Sales and Commercial Director
• Andy Carruthers – Technical & IT Director

History

Ezylet Ltd was founded in the UK in June 2006 by Paul Foy, who retains 77% of its equity. Its initial funding round of c£1.3m enabled Ezylet to become fully operational, build and hone its offering, launch its website and hire a team.

Ezylet’s initial concept reflected a successful approach developed for the Irish market by daft.ie, a successful online residential property lettings site, which based its strategy on landlords, unlike most other websites which rely on data fed by agents. Ezylet’s research has uncovered an opportunity in the UK for an online offering which gives landlords true choice between self-managing their properties in direct relationship with tenants and using agents, each on either end of a wide spectrum of ‘pick and mix’ services and products.

By providing an open marketplace and a cost-reduction platform within a high-quality, efficient, effective and seamless online solution, Ezylet aims at becoming the dominant alternative to agency-driven web sites in the lettings only space.

Recent Press

No links to recent press releases

Information Sources

Management Interview
Site Review

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