'A Business Partner For Agents': Daft.ie's New Approach To Helping Agents Succeed

With high demand for housing, lack of supply and very little new construction on the horizon, the Irish property market is challenging, to say the least. As a result, estate agents are facing fierce competition for business.

Against this backdrop, Daft.ie has been innovating with its own business model to become a closer partner for agents, giving them the best possible chance of success while helping sellers achieve the best price, General Manager Marcus Hartwall said. 

“It’s essential that we stop agents’ race to the bottom,” he said. “We know from agents that they have to resort to dropping fees to win business, but this isn’t helping sellers either — they need to pick the right agent for their property, not the cheapest. Our mission is to help agents become an investment for property owners to achieve the best outcomes, and not be viewed as a cost.”

Hartwell joined Daft.ie in 2024, having spent his career helping online marketplaces scale profitably. His experience in real estate includes leading the UK and Nordic arms of software platform Houzz, which helps architects and interior designers boost their brands and attract clients. 

At Daft.ie, he is spearheading the rollout of the company’s new road map, which focuses on answering one question: How can Daft.ie add value for agents?

“We are moving Daft.ie from being simply a listings platform to become a business partner for agents, helping them grow the visibility of their brand and ultimately win market share,” he said. “Our goal is to educate sellers on the value that agents deliver while helping agents improve productivity through our products.”

A key element of Daft.ie’s new focus is listening actively to agents' clients, Hartwall said. The company has team members across Ireland, not only in Dublin, to offer agents local knowledge with a national reach. 

As well as drawing insights from the team’s 180 interactions with agents every day, the company carries out regular client surveys to capture feedback. Key performance indicators allow Daft.ie to understand agent sentiment, digging into how they’re feeling about the market and how Daft.ie’s services can help. 

“We put a lot of time into face-to-face meetings and other interactions with agents because we see huge value in really understanding their needs,” he said. “Most importantly, we don’t just sit on this feedback. It’s transparently shared across Daft — with sales, marketing, product — to centralise our understanding of customer trends.” 

Daft.ie has already been channeling this customer understanding effort into product development, Hartwall said. Agents are included in the early stage of product ideation and shape the tools Daft.ie brings to market. 

Hartwall gave the example of a feature of Offers by Daft, the company’s tool for online bidding. After the tool was launched in 2024, agents said they wanted a setting to allow them to choose whether bidding should be publicly visible or not. Once this feature was added, adoption of the tool increased by 13%. 

One of Daft.ie’s more ambitious goals is to change how sellers view marketing entirely by introducing vendor-funded advertising, Hartwall said. Instead of agents absorbing the cost of advertising homes, vendors pay for various levels of marketing. 

This method is standard practice in countries such as Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, but in Ireland, only 40% of agents charge a separate marketing fee. Advertising is eating into their bottom line rather than being used as a tool to attract vendors, he said.

“We need a cultural mindshift,” he said. “Agents are so fearful of losing listings that they’re dropping fees where they should be offering vendors the chance to reach a wider market. We need vendors to realise that by spending a few hundred euros on advertising, they could drive a few thousand more in sales price. It’ll be one of the smartest investments they make.”

To help shift the market to vendor-funded marketing, Daft.ie brought a leading trainer in property marketing from Australia to train its entire sales team on how to explain the benefits to agents. In turn, Daft.ie’s sales team will support and share their training with agents on how to sell their service to sellers without compromising on the value they offer as property professionals. 

“You have to give agents the confidence to position vendor-funded advertising as the smart investment that it is,” Hartwall said. “Equally, we need to create a pull effect on the vendor side by showing them the value of this investment.”

Daft.ie has launched many new features during the last 12 months, all created with feedback from agents and Daft.ie’s own comprehensive market data, Hartwall said. This includes Advantage Ads, premium listings to attract buyers that drive 33% more views on average than standard adverts. As the market continues to evolve, the company’s focus on innovation will continue. 

“We want to be known as constantly providing cutting-edge technology and solutions,” he said. “Our product road map for the next few years is transformative and exciting and will benefit every stakeholder in Ireland.”

This article was produced in collaboration between Daft.ie and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.