A company aiming to get more estate agents into the land and new homes business says it has signed up 67 agents in its first year of operation.

The Land & New Homes Network was launched last June to help estate agents team up with house builders, provides training, support, tools and connections for non-competing independent agents across the UK.

The network’s founder, Kevin Ellis, told EYE that the most popular region has been the south-west but they have a presence ranging from York to Manchester.

He said growth plans included quarterly insight reports representing member regions and a lead generation scheme for agents hearing about speculative opportunities.

Ellis said: “We are in the project phase of lead generation for land leads and are working with a proptech provider to give agents the unique tools needed.

“There will be more information in September.”

Ellis added: “While the number of agents joining has been good, we are after quality rather than quantity. We have probably declined 35 to 40 firms.

“We are looking for an agency with a strong position in the market. We also find independents can be better than corporates as they have more skin in the game. Builders appreciate that.”

Since launch, the network says it has handled £153m of land transactions, won £10.7m of new instructions and provided £5.8bn worth of pricing to house builders and developers.

Ian Stratford, managing director of the network, said: “We are enabling independent agents to work together and make their overall offer far more appealing to house builders and developers.

“We help them speak the language of developers and identify the best ways to present their offer to them.”