Meet Ashley, MyPropTech CEO and Co-Founder, a man on a mission to fix the housing market and create greater access for all not just the privileged few. Originally from Australia, Ashley moved to London in 2014 from Hong Kong where he spent ten years living and working throughout Asia.
Ashley went to the University of South Australia, where completed and undergraduate degree in Business (Property) and later went on to complete an Executive MBA at the Ivey Business School, as well as a Master’s Degree in Applied Finance and Investment at the Financial Services Institute of Australia.
Ashley began his career in real estate at the age of 16, working in a regional sales franchise of Ray White selling homes in the city fringe market of Adelaide. Ashley went on to build and lead one of Asia's largest international sales businesses at Colliers International. As Head of UK Residential and International Property Sales Asia, Ashley led a team that sold more than USD 5 billion of property for some of the world's most prominent developers in Asia, Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America.
Why Did you Start MyPropTech?
MyPropTech was created out of frustration. Normal people get a bad deal when they purchase new build property, but it doesn’t have to be like that.
The real estate market is a two tier market. Large investors buy new build property at huge discounts, they typically purchase new build property for discounts of up to 25% off the retail price. They buy property at huge discounts because of the buying power they have. They can solve problems for developers, and they know it!
Property development is speculative and very high risk, there is a high chance of things going wrong for developers. To limit their financial exposure, developers need to pre-sell 30% to 50% of development before they start construction. Large investors know this, they demand preferential treatment from developers. They buy property in volume at the early stage of development when the developer's risk is high. They negotiate huge discounts based on the volume of property they buy and the massive amount of money they have to spend.
MyPropTech creates an alternative for developers. Rather than a discounted sale to large investors or the huge financial risk of an international sales roadshow, MyPropTech creates a middle ground where both the developer and small buyers benefit. The MyPropTech Dynamic Pricing algorithm combines small buyers into a powerful buying group. Buyers purchase individual properties, but this group buys a volume of property large enough to reduce the developer's financial risk. It also removes the financial waste of a property roadshow.
Why is MyPropTech a better way for people to buy new build?
People who work in the real estate industry understand that normal people are at a huge disadvantage when they negotiate to buy property. Normal people simply cannot afford access to the powerful databases, financial analysis, and tools to make truly informed buying decisions.
Large investors have privileged access to powerful investment databases that provide precise market data. These databases provide insight into tenant demographics and demand. As well as detailed pricing information about how much properties are selling for at a unit rate. These databases also set out the likely rental income and volume of competition. They also hire armies of analysts to build complex financial models. These forecast net return after-tax and likely return on investment (ROI). Which allows for comparisons to determine where they get the biggest bang for their buck.
MyPropTech levels the playing field for normal people. Our platform puts everyday people in the same position as a large institutional developer, including creating the buying power they have.
What is MyPropTech Dynamic Pricing™?
MyPropTech is a platform where members benefit from huge savings on property from the world’s leading property developers. We agree discounts for new build property based on the volume of property sold in a single transaction, the more people who buy the bigger the discount that everyone gets!
How does it work?
MyPropTech promotes properties in small allocations. Every property has both a retail price and a ‘strike price’, the strike price is the price for the property assuming all of the properties are sold. We promote the allocation of property for 30 days, and every time a member reserves a property the dynamic price for all of the properties reduces. At the end of the 30 days there are only two possible outcomes:
- Strike Price is not hit – if the dynamic price does not reach the strike price, there is no deal
- If the Strike Price is hit – if the dynamic price hits the strike price, the member purchases the property at the strike price. Members get the benefit of buying at the price as if they had purchased several properties in the same transaction.
Why would developers do this?
MyPropTech creates a win:win scenario for both developers and buyers. Developers must pre-sell 30% - 50% of their development, for most developers this means they need to either give a huge discount to an institutional investor or speculate a huge amount of money promoting a scheme offshore.
MyPropTech creates an option that eliminate the financial waste involved with a large international sales campaign and passes the savings on to purchasers. The purchasers get the benefit of purchasing power they could not create alone. However, these discounts are typically less than what a developer would need to give to a huge financial institution who would purchase the entire building.
What is the Vision for MyPropTech?
Housing markets are broken, governments blame developers for land banking and profiteering. Developers blame governments for endless bureaucracy. First time buyers blame investors for pricing them out of the housing market and landlords say punitive taxation rules mean they must keep increasing rents.
It doesn’t matter who is to blame, the outcome is the same:
- Limited rental property – is driving up rents and impacting economic growth
- First time buyers – are trapped in high cost rental property
- New housing – is set to be delivered at its lowest rates in decades
Instead of putting first time buyers and investors in competition, we turn them into collaborators. By aggregating first time buyers and investors together we create an economy of scale that neither party can create alone. We create powerful buying groups who collectively have buying power similar to that of a large institutional investor.
