EYE NEWSFLASH: easyProperty founder Robert Ellice parts company with business after turbulent years

| Rosalind Renshaw

Robert Ellice, who founded easyProperty, has parted company with the business.

Ellice’s departure comes just over three years since the online agency launched with Ellice at its helm. He later became renowned as the man who organised the ‘funeral’ march through London of high street estate agents.

This morning, easyProperty chief executive Jon Cooke confirmed the departure last Friday but said he was unable to comment.

Ellice’s departure also comes nearly four months after the deal with the Guild of Property Professionals and Fine & Country, which saw Ellice replaced as chief executive by Cooke.

To the surprise of some, Ellice stayed on as commercial director, with easyProperty relaunching in early September as a business-to-business model.

Ellice’s tenure at easyProperty has been – to put it mildly – frequently controversial and often turbulent. The one thing it has never been is easy.

It launched in 2014 at the Natural History Museum’s famed ‘dinosaurs’ hall. The theatrical event, which attempted to consign high street agents to history, was attended by hundreds.

Using the ‘easy’ brand under licence from Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s easyGroup, Ellice did not shy away from publicity.

In 2015, he took part in a horse-drawn ‘funeral’ stunt across London, where he and a cast of actors mourned the death of the high street agent.

However, the real nail in the coffin came this March when easyProperty posted losses of almost £11m on a turnover of less than £1m.

Those figures covered the 12-month period to the end of September 2016.

In a successful crowdfunding pitch in September 2014, easyProperty had said it would make a profit of just under £3m on a turnover of almost £24m in the 12 months to September 2016.

The Companies House accounts also showed that Ellice had taken a big pay cut.

In the year to the end of September 2015 he was paid £402,053. This was subsequently cut to £181,250.

In June this year, the £60m deal with GPEA was announced, backed by Toscafund Asset Management which had already poured £14m into easyProperty.

The relaunch of easyProperty was not aligned with the original business model – nor was it based on the belief that high street agents were prehistoric creatures that were effectively dead and buried.

Instead, it is now relying on those very agents, members of the Guild and Fine & Country, to sell the easyProperty digital option.

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14 Comments

  1. smile please
    October 25, 2017 at 09:21

    Too early for his funeral?

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  2. Hillofwad71
    October 25, 2017 at 09:28

    Easy come ,Easy go

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  3. J1
    October 25, 2017 at 09:46

    Good

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  4. smile please
    October 25, 2017 at 09:55

    It is horrid when anybody loses their job, but i must admit i feel no anguish with Robert losing his.

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  5. grumskikorski
    October 25, 2017 at 09:57

    The irony is not lost

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  6. CPestateagentesq
    October 25, 2017 at 09:59

    EasyP45

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  7. El Burro
    October 25, 2017 at 10:07

    Easy peasy, market squeezy

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  8. agentspark
    October 25, 2017 at 10:21

    All jokes aside, has anyone questioned the £60m investment to basically buy portal software?  A crazy investment.

    I know who is probably laughing the most and its not us – we are sleep walking into making a few people Ellice (no doubt his remuneration for the £60m investment will come out in the wash) and Springett (launching a restricted portal to sell the untapped revenue to the City on the float while affecting every member’s business in the interim) while we as an industry seem oblivious to knowing our own worth and maximising our own businesses.

     

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  9. dave_d
    October 25, 2017 at 10:46

    £402,053 !!!!!!!!!!

    My god, pay me £402k – I’d do a damn sight better job than he has done

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  10. jamesBee
    October 25, 2017 at 10:53

    R.I.P

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  11. PaulC
    October 25, 2017 at 14:16

    How is everyone finding the NEW and improved onslaught from EasyProperty? Almost having zero impact down our way.

    Which make me wonder how long before plan C.

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  12. apostropheV96
    October 25, 2017 at 17:21

    Aw – ‘gis a job, I can do that!

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  13. Sunbeam175
    October 25, 2017 at 20:33

    Not quite as Easy as Easy think it is!

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  14. jeremy1960
    October 26, 2017 at 14:03

    Anyone tried their online valuation? Just tried the bungalow that I live in and received an estimate between £361,000 & £571,000 – £210,000 range! I suspect that a small child could get closer that that!

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