Start-up company comes up with "fairer way" of buying and selling property

A local start-up company, known as Venbona, has developed a way of buying and selling properties which is advantageous to both vendors and purchasers.

These days it is the norm for estate agents to market property from the top price downwards, whether this be on Homegate or other platforms. If the price is deemed too high, it is subsequently reduced. “This gives rise to the possibility of great fall in price and loss of trust at the same time as it is only natural the purchaser does not want to pay over the odds,” said John Stadler, the managing director of the company.

With this new e-Bay-type way of doing things at Venbona, i.e. with an open, digital, offering procedure, Stadler said that there was nothing fairer.

He went on to say that buying through Venbona was simple, transparent and efficient, though their procedures could not be compared with a classical auction.

The 33-year-old went onto explain that Venbona offered two types of procedures, one, an open one, able to be seen by all participants, and a closed one, where offers were able to be seen by vendors only. People interested in buying the property have to be admitted to the procedure by the vendor, subsequent to which direct bargaining, from an agreed minimum price, between the two takes place for a limited period of time.

It is during this procedure that the real current market value of the property can be worked out and made known to only those showing real interest in it, culminating with both purchaser and vendor happy they have clinched a good deal.

It is actually one year ago that the company put out a test version online, its latest version launched just a few days ago. “At present we are focusing on properties in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, but we are looking to expand to other countries, too. What is more, we are continually improving the site. I feel we are on the cusp of a great new development,” said Stadler.

When asked if such offering procedures and auctions did not generally force property prices to rise, Stadler replied, “On the contrary, an offering procedure, i.e. a dynamic way of arriving at a price, was the fairest way of coming to an agreed price, for property, too. This is why such methods are being used by public bodies, too. Doing all this digitally through our website means the whole procedure is fairer, simpler and more transparent.

Further information, partially in English, too, can be found on www.venbona.ch.