The Rise & Fall of Online Agents: Why the property industry 'must not get swept away in hyperbole'
The emergence of online-only estate agents prompted 'the kind of hyperbole not seen since the first dot com bubble', says Patrick Alvarado of Nicolas van Patrick. The property industry would do well to stick to the facts, he says, and to remember the real value of the human touch.

Patrick Alvarado is a Director of boutique estate agency Nicolas Van Patrick, based in Knightsbridge. He was born in Madrid and moved to Knightsbridge with his family in the early 70’s where he lived for 25 years. He is trilingual and has 15 years property experience in the prime central London market where he worked in sales for a leading estate agency before going on to open and manage their South Kensington office.
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Property portals are ‘displacing agents’ by ‘moving closer to the transaction’, says proptech expert
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