Who is a PropTech? Levent Künzi and I don’t see eye to eye. Whereas Levent is promoting his company everywhere as a PropTech, I reject this classification. Properti is a broker who uses digital tools. I am probably the only one in the scene who sees it that way. But sometimes you have to swim against the tide.
The word from inside Properti is that they have another, larger capital requirement. At one point, the core business, the sale of real estate, is said to be far from great. I went to the Properti, Betterhomes and RE/MAX websites to try and find out the number of properties advertised. Properti is way behind in sales with 452 properties (Betterhomes = 1,186, RE/MAX = 1,586). Properti is also behind Betterhomes with 571 properties to rent (RE/MAX = 126).
According to its own information, Properti employs 160 experts. If they were to earn, say, 4,000 francs a month, Properti would need over 600,000 francs for wages alone. And this per month. Would the commissions from the sales be enough? More than 70 % of the properties advertised are between 0 and 1,000,000. Properti is also sporty about commission, which according to his own website is 2 % (although this is supposed to include extras).
Properti is just as aggressive when it comes to management. It is also reported from an internal source that Properti has struck especially with condominium owners. However, the necessary staff is lacking to be able to handle all mandates professionally. It seems that Properti is in a difficult spiral.
Properti has a top-class board of directors and well-known names on its advisory board. So the broker does not seem to lack know-how. Looking at the board of directors, Christoph Tonini stands out. He is CEO of the Swiss Marketplace Group SMG. The real estate industry is already dissatisfied with SMG. This personal connection does not make things any better. As a precaution, the portrait does not mention Tonini’s current job. One doesn’t want to be too transparent.