Ex-Estate Agent Launches UK's First Sales Progression Franchise

Property Progressors has launched what it claims is the UK's first franchise model dedicated to sales progression, capping individual caseloads at 60 in a sector where some progressors handle up to 250 cases at a time.

The company, founded by former estate agent Natasha Candeias in 2022, provides outsourced sales progression to estate agencies. The new franchise model will allow individual progressors to operate their own businesses within designated territories across England and Wales, using Property Progressors' systems, CRM and training.

The launch targets a persistent pain point in the UK housing market: the time it takes to move a transaction from sale agreed to completion. Property Progressors claims sales typically take more than 100 days to complete across the wider market, with fall-through rates running between 30% and 36%. Transactions handled through its service complete in around 78 days on average, the company says.

The franchise expansion is pitched at two audiences. The first is estate agencies looking to outsource some or all of their sales progression. Under the model, agents work with a dedicated progressor covering their local market rather than hiring an employed member of staff.

The second is experienced sales progressors who want to run their own businesses. Candeias argues the career path currently offers limited upside.

"Sales progression is a career that usually hits a ceiling, and we lose brilliant people because of it," she said. "This gives them somewhere to grow. And keeping that experience in the industry benefits everyone in the transaction."

Candeias spent 14 years in estate agency before setting up the business. She argues that local knowledge allows progressors to identify potential problems earlier in a transaction, before they derail a deal.

"Most delays don't come out of nowhere," she said. "A local progressor knows the local search lead times, which freehold houses still need estate management packs and which solicitor to reach out to at the local firm when a transaction is wobbling. When you catch those things early, sales complete faster and far fewer fall through. That's better for agents, and it's much less stressful for the people moving."

Josh Rayner, non-executive director at Property Progressors, framed the model as a fix for two connected problems in the sector: agents' need for reliable progression and the industry's difficulty retaining skilled progressors.

"Agents have always needed good progression, and good progressors have always been hard to keep," Rayner said. "This model deals with both. It gives experienced people a reason to stay and build something, and it gives agents local expertise they can rely on."

Property Progressors says it already provides sales progression services to two large UK estate agencies by sales volume, although it did not name the firms. Those existing contracts could give the franchise network a base of referral work as locally based franchisees come onstream.

The caseload cap is the company's clearest differentiator against in-house and outsourced competitors. By keeping individual progressors at 60 cases or fewer, against an industry norm of 150 to 250, Property Progressors is betting that attention, not headcount, is what shortens transaction timelines and cuts fall-through rates.