The Goodlord Leaders Forum LIVE blog

We’re live from the Goodlord Leaders Forum, where some of the most influential voices in the lettings industry have come together for an exclusive day of insight, debate, and forward-thinking ideas.

Across today’s sessions, we’ll be hearing from Goodlord CEO William Reeve, policy experts from MHCLG and the legal sector, industry leaders from Zoopla and the NRLA, innovators from Funnel and Resi, and many more tackling the biggest challenges facing the market right now. Expect honest conversations, practical insights, and forward-looking ideas designed to help businesses not just adapt, but thrive.

We’ll be sharing key takeaways, standout moments, and expert perspectives throughout the day, so whether you’re in the room or following along from afar, you won’t miss a thing.

Stay with us for the latest insights as they happen.

 8:30 AM

And we're off! Registration has officially opened here at The Brewery for the Goodlord Leaders Forum.

We're excited to welcome our delegates and partners to what is sure to be an informative day full of insights, expert talks, and Letting Without Limits.

Goodlord CEO William Reeve will be opening today's speaker sessions with "The Future of Agency Leadership" at 9:30 AM.

9:30 AM 

William Reeve has taken the stage and opens his keynote by thanking our sponsors Kamma and Street.com. 

"This new world has teeth - there is something of a minefield in the lettings sector..."

William asks whether "renting is broken," referring to Goodlord's latest report, which draws on input from 2,650 agents, tenants, and landlords. 

The new report focuses on four key issues for the Private Rented Sector: 

• The Admin Avalanche - 76% of agents say admin is limiting their business
• The Value Void - 59% of landlords say high fees and poor value are their biggest frustrations
• The Regulatory Reset - 82% of landlords are concerned about the Renters’ Rights Act (44% very concerned)
• The Technology Trap - 55% of agents' say technology either adds complexity or makes no difference to their work

"20% are saying admin is their biggest operational headache - but think about the landlords. This Act may be the catalyst for landlords knowing they don't want to go it alone anymore."

By playing to the PRS' strengths and leading the market, William argues agencies can work to overcome these issues and build better businesses. Leadership will play a key role in shaping the market. 

William's final point is to say that leaders should embrace AI as part of their practice. It's up to each business to decide how they'll use AI, each with their own products and strategies. 

"Having been through these disruptions, this AI one is happening faster than anything I've seen before."

 10:00 AM 

Goodlord's Oli Sherlock has kicked off his panel discussion "Industry Spotlight: Navigating the Renters' Rights Act," featuring lawyer David Smith, Generation Rent's Nye Jones, the NRLA's Chris Norris, and Campions' Donna Ingram.

Donna Igram describes her position as "pessimistically optimistic," while Chris Norris warns, "There will be chaos over the next year."

Oli begins a short discussion of the abolition of Section 21 involving Chris Norris and Nye Jones. He describes the abolition as "a triumph" for Generation Rent. 

Asked whether Generation Rent accepts the point that some Section 21 notices were served "For Cause", Nye Jones agrees but emphasises the importance of proper procedures. 

David Smith raises the point that Wales brought in Rent Smart Wales to assist property owners to comply with their legislative duties, "which this government [the UK Government] should have done." 

The panel agrees that slow court proceedings leave both landlords and tenants in bad positions.

"It's [the courts] getting slower. For the last three quarters, the speed of possession has got longer. So it's now. It's now approaching seven months, the digitisation of the court system is supposed to wait on months of that, but not off the medium off the need." - David Smith

The panel agrees that slow court proceedings leave both landlords and tenants in bad positions.

"It's the notice period that's the time to try and launch. and normalise things to try and talk to one another to try and understand whether that is a self-digital intensive or not and whether you can put in place some kind of program structure to repay that debt, or to work, rent or to the stock." - Chris Norris 

David Smith and Nye Jones disagree on whether the legislation will help or hinder marginalised tenant groups. With David saying the system is not designed to catch struggling tenants, while Nye says a ban on no-fault evictions gives tenants more flexibility in how and when they leave their rental property.

The panel moves to a discussion on renewal fees. The move from ASTs to Periodic tenancies will remove the ability to charge these fees under the Renters Rights Act.  

"We have restructured our terms of business and some of our fee structures, but ultimately, we're still providing the same ongoing service that we've always provided, and ensuring that our Terms and Conditions really highlight the ongoing commitment to the landlord, ensuring they're compliant and being there for all of their ongoing tenancy needs."- Donna Igram

Donna Igram then says that agencies must adapt. 

"I think if there is going to be a point in time where agents need to really look at that bottom layers, now, I do consider we probably will see some movement on that over the next 12 to 18 months, because I think, huge amount of burden administrative burden on teams, no matter how good your tech is, there's just more things that we need to do, compliance, most of London now is under some sort of licensing scheme that's a huge amount of work to administer and you still need that that human in the loop regardless." - Donna Igram

For the last part of the panel, Oli asks the panellists about the particulars, starting with what Generation Rent wants to see from agents. 

"So I think what really good agents to do is produce really clear kind of guidance on what the new rights are, how to enforce them and what's changing." - Nye Jones

Oli asks the same question to Chris Norris, but with a focus on landlords.

10:40 AM 

Joining us from the AI-driven CRM business Funnel for his session "Lessons from across the pond - what US lettings is looking like and how they use AI," Tyler Christiansen takes the stage.

Introducing his Company, Tyler shows us "the future of renter management software". As one of the first adopters of AI in the US market, Funnel adds around 1 million properties to its platform each year. 

Tyler gives a brief overview of his background, emphasising that his ancestors' move from the UK to the US in the 1800s was based on "entrepreneurial opportunity." 

"The AI opportunity [in property management] is opening up a Wild West situation."

Drawing a comparison between the UK and the US, Tyler tells the crowd that the legislative landscape is changing in both countries. He says half of Funnel's focus has been on ensuring its platform complies with new US laws.

"It is becoming more regulated and even last year, we're gonna go through a lot of cool AI features if my product team was on stage, they would tell you that's only half of what we wanted to build."

To excel in an increasingly AI-driven industry, businesses "must find partners who go fast and far."

Showing off some of Funnel's key functions, Tyler highlights generative messaging and Voice AI features, claiming that 80% of agents send unedited generated messages and that 80% of tenants will choose a Voice AI agent if given the choice. 

Using "agentic" AI agents, Funell enables human agents to automate contract changes mid-lease, allowing tenants to add roommates, request permission to have pets in the properties, and perform other low-level administrative tasks. 

"Your letting agencies are overwhelmed with administrative burden today, and so I think that they are absolutely keen to be disrupted by agentic technology to assist the agent."

In the US, renewals are going down as excess housing supply enters the market. Tyler argues that AI has a role to play here, as the Funnels' AI agents can offer tenants the ideal rates without losing the agency's money. 

Using Funnel's tools, one tenant was able to enter a Chat GPT chatroom with an AI agent and process a rent payment, a world first. 

"I am confident that consumers and the way in which they interact with you, your agency, is going to move, once again, from the traditional channels to new channels." 

In his closing remarks, Tyler says that the AI future is here, and it's up to agencies to embrace it. 

"Lastly, everything I just talked about highlights how great AI is, all the cool things it can do; having said that, we believe, down to our bones, that the differentiation in this vertical, this industry, is service. It is humans."

11:10 AM 

Break for lunch.

11:45 AM 

Joining us on the mainstage for "Foundations for Founders – Fireside Chat" is Resi Founder Alex Depledge and Goodlord's own B2B Managing Director, Tom Goodman.

Alex gives us a brief bio, from her early start in the North of England to her first few businesses to her founding of Resi. 

Breaking down her hiring mentality, Alex tells the crowd how she always prefers to hire candidates that she can help shape and grow. 

"I look for behaviour and mentality. Those people will be your A-stars every time." - Alex Depledge

Alex tells us that we should be cautious about the "move fast and break things" mentality, alluding to how some in the industry are using tools like AI. Expanding on this thought, Alex urges the UK to pick its battles.

"I think we're in great danger in the UK becoming an AI taker rather than an AI maker." - Alex Depledge

When asked for advice on growing a business with VC money, Alex says the main thing is "to learn how to use a balance sheet." 

In building a company culture, Alex tells us that it comes down to two pillars. 

"So your entire organisation needs to understand your execution strategy number one, because then when you're not in the room, they will make the decision that you would make. And then the second piece is: I often find that, in companies that value, the value is quite meaningless, like it's not actionable." - Alex 

Tom opens the floor to questions from the audience. Questions ranged from shaping good candidates to what agentic AI practices look like in successful businesses. 

"We will have that big pendulum shift where we try to do everything, using a gentle AI realise we're really miserable and lonely and then move back to the centre like there'll be a lot of in-person, or caring social stuff that." - Alex

12:10

Goodlord's Emily Popple introduces the next panel, "Industry Shifts: The Stories That Defined Us, the Future We Face" with CEO and Co-Founder of Kamma, Orla Sheilds and David Cox.

David opens by speaking about how different regulatory measures in the PRS have shrunk and grown the industry over the years.

 "We've grown used to it; it won't kill us. It's a bump, but we'll move past it." - David Cox

Emily then asks what has changed about the agents' offerings . Orla talks about how agents now serve a role of keeping landlords and their tenants safe. 

Moving past legislation, Emily asks David Cox what sort of landlord still exists in the current PRS. 

"Your recent state and lettings industry report suggests that 20% of landlords are thinking about reducing their portfolio sizes." - David Cox

"House prices, I will accept, according to the ONS data, they have started to dip in the last three to six months, but we're still looking at a two to 2.5% and I appreciate this is an annual average people from different parts of the country. You will have different experiences from an aggregated perspective, we're looking at about two to two and a half percent house price rise over the last 12 months, even if it is dipping a little bit at the moment.
"So it may be catalyst for some or something about early, but I don't think there's going to be mass exodus, I think we're going to get a new generation coming in." - David Cox

Orla tells us that she finds it surprising that no agents or business brands themselves around protection from non-compliance. Arguing that reframing around protection better demonstrates value to landlords and tenants. 

"It might be better to reprice your services, make sure they [landlords] know what they're paying for...The key is demonstrating your value" - Orla Sheilds

Emily asks David if he thinks that, considering legislation like the Decent Homes Standard, agents should refocus their service to become almost like asset managers. David agrees and says that agents should be reframing their relationships with both landlords and tenants. 

"This is where AI can be really helpful. Agents are people-people. Let's focus on that, and leave the systems to do the paperwork." - David Cox