Feeling at home supporting Zoopla’s in-house counsel

Feeling at home supporting Zoopla’s in-house counsel
Zoopla

It is one the country’s most-visited websites for people looking to buy, sell, rent or lease a property. In the past three months, property tech giant Zoopla has grown and boosted the numbers of subscribers to its popular portal.  

One of the keys to the Zoopla group’s continued success is its commitment to providing homebuyers, renters, estate agents, landlords and lenders with innovative products and services that are always evolving. Harper James Solicitors is now working alongside the property powerhouse, supporting their in-house counsel with specialist advice.  

Our commercial law team has advised Zoopla on a range of legal issues, helping them to come up with pragmatic and commercial solutions. Amelia Guilfoyle, Zoopla’s head of legal, had this to say about the relationship with Harper James: ‘Harper James is a good fit with Zoopla, as we share that ambitious mentality. The on-demand service we get from Harper James allows us to combine their expertise with that of our own in-house counsel. It means we can get quick and trustworthy legal advice from specialists in every legal area, as and when we need it. There are no hidden extras and the service we have received has always demonstrated an awareness of our fast-moving commercial requirements.’

Like Zoopla, Harper James’s subscriptions are growing rapidly too. We now work with more than 1,000 businesses from start-up to scale-up and have ambitious plans for future growth. Commenting on this new partnership, Harper James Solicitors’ CEO, Toby Harper, said: ‘We’re delighted to be working with Zoopla, one of the UK’s big tech success stories. There are real similarities in our business models: we are both tech-enabled, high-growth businesses disrupting the traditional boundaries of our respective industries. The future is full of promise for Zoopla and we couldn’t be more excited about supporting them on that journey.’

Despite the challenges posed to the property industry by coronavirus, Zoopla has remained resilient. The number of agent branches and new homes sites currently subscribed to the portal is up 2% year on year. This follows a £30m investment that Zoopla made in the industry at the start of lockdown, waiving fees to agents for between six and nine months to help them weather the COVID storm. 

The investment looks to be paying off, as sales agreed on Zoopla are up 76% on the five year average, and leads delivered by Zoopla per agent branch are up 38% since pre-Covid.

In a further sign of its commitment to carry on innovating, the company launched a brand new product series - 'The Zooploma’, early this year, which is designed to support and empower buyers, sellers, renters and  buy-to-let landlords and investors, wherever they are in their property journey. The personalised email programme provides free property guides, expert advice, and inspirational stories tailored to Zoopla’s various home-mover demographics.  


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