Gillian Kent – once employed by News International to run a portal to rival Rightmove – has now been appointed chairman of online agency NoAgent.

In 2005 News International appointed Kent – a former MSN UK chief – with the aim of taking PropertyFinder to a point where it could rival Rightmove which was then (as now) the market leader. 

However, in 2009 Zoopla acquired the PropertyFinder Group which by then included not only Propertyfinder itself but also Hotproperty and UK Property Shop.

Now Kent says that despite the impact of the digital revolution, property services in the UK have not changed fundamentally. 

However, she claims NoAgent is the only service that completely automates tasks such as marketing, bookings, reference checks, maintenance and compliance.

“Strategically what we’re doing is empowering landlords to fully manage all aspects of the letting of their property – and save money as a direct result. Agencies currently earn £115m a year in fees doing these sorts of tasks.