The Guild of Property Professionals is recommending Boomin to its members after today announcing its full support for the soon-to-launch platform.

The decision to back Boomin comes after an agreement was struck between the parties that The Guild says guarantees the integrity of data and its ownership rights, as well as the primacy of the agent/customer relationship.

The Guild says it has been in discussions with its membership and the leadership team at Boomin over the last few months, and although opinion has been divided, The Guild believes that there is a need for fresh competition in the portal space.

In November last year, The Guild hosted an open debate to freely discuss the Boomin offering to agents, and at the time there was “a polarisation within the Membership regarding the new portal”, according to Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals.

He commented: “We wanted the network to be able to voice their concerns so that we could address them directly with Boomin.

“Members were concerned about two main areas, namely whether the portal was, in the long term, planning to go directly to consumers cutting out the agent, and who owns the data and how Boomin intends to make use of it.”

To address these key concerns of the network, The Guild asked Boomin to provide them with a specific integrated tech platform and solution, which they agreed to.

McKenzie continued: “What this essentially means is that members listings data will first pass through The Guild’s platform and then feed through to Boomin in accordance with the agreed service level of each agent. This gateway provides the necessary reassurance that the Guild Members’ data is protected.

“As a result of the agreement and the open and transparent engagement with Boomin The Guild is recommending that members sign-up to Boomin, safe in the knowledge that there is no conflicted data play, and that the portal has no intention whatsoever of going direct to the consumer.

“We believe that Boomin will act in the best interest of agents, providing them with more options and additional revenue streams.”

Michael Bruce, executive chairman and founder of Boomin, is understandably delighted to have secured the backing of The Guild.

He commented: “We are proud to have entered into an agreement with The Guild that reinforces beyond any doubt our commitment to an agent and customer relationship and puts pay to any concerns of a data play. To be very clear Boomin has not, and will not, ever look to move to a direct model, something this agreement guarantees.

“We encourage all agents who are yet to sign up with Boomin to join other leading agents, as pioneers for change, rather than be forced into a future that does not embrace and support them and their customers and almost inevitably continues to feed a financial model that is, or will become, unaffordable for the vast majority of agents.

“We will work tirelessly at Boomin in partnership with agents, to repay their trust, deliver on our ambitions to provide a transformational experience, and earn agents more income than they pay over in fees.”