What does a good lettings business look like in 2026?

In this episode of The Voice of the Agent Podcast, Toby Martin is joined by Sophie Lang, co-owner of multi-award-winning Lang Llewellyn & Co, to go deep on the realities of running — and growing — a lettings business in the year ahead.

Using fresh insight from the January Voice of the Agent report, the conversation explores why landlord numbers are proving more resilient than headlines suggest, how agents are turning the Renters’ Rights Act into a growth opportunity, and why education — not fear — is the key to winning new instructions.

Sophie shares practical, hard-earned experience on converting self-managing landlords, managing expectations around rents, and why many landlords exiting the market are being replaced by a more professional, business-minded generation.

The episode also tackles some of the industry’s most uncomfortable questions:

🏠 Is 10% really enough for full management?

📉 Why let-only services may be living on borrowed time

📈 How acquisitions can outperform organic growth

🧠 What makes a lettings book genuinely valuable

⚖️ And how to future-proof your business without panic

This is a candid, experience-led discussion for lettings professionals who want clarity, not chaos — and a reminder that while 2026 will bring change, it also brings opportunity for agents who are prepared.

📊 Download the full January Voice of the Agent report here: https://www.weareunchained.co.uk/thevoiceoftheagent

Estate agents don’t need more tech, they need less friction.

In this episode, Simon is joined by Victoria Lambden, Business Development Lead at GlueDog (and a former estate agent who’s lived the spreadsheet-and-duplicate-data nightmare). Together they unpack why so many agencies keep adding tools… yet don’t see the output improve, and how the real unlock is integration.

You’ll hear Victoria’s “traffic light” way of spotting bottlenecks, why integration is finally shifting from “nice-to-have” to non-negotiable, and what proptech should feel like when it’s working properly: it disappears into the background.

They also get into:

✅ PropTech overload (and how to audit your stack without losing the plot)

✅ Why teams use less than 50% of their CRM

✅ Training, adoption, morale, and the human side of tech change

✅ AI in agency: brilliant assistant, terrible replacement agent

If you’re still typing the same address 16 times into 4 systems, this is a must listen.

What’s actually happening in the property market — and how do agents really feel about 2026?

In this episode of The Voice of the Agent, Toby Martin and Simon Leadbetter unpack the January 2026 Voice of the Agent report, focusing on residential sales and lettings, and cutting through the noise to reveal what the data really says.

They explore agent confidence, transaction levels, fees, competition, and growth expectations — and why the market feels cautious on the surface, yet quietly optimistic underneath. You’ll hear why many agents grew in 2025 despite negative headlines, what the data reveals about house prices and rental values in 2026, and where the biggest opportunities (and risks) lie for agency owners right now.

The conversation also digs into the structural realities of estate agency:

🏠 Why sales-only businesses remain exposed

🔁 Why lettings still underpin long-term business value

💰 How fees really work across price brackets

⚔️ Just how competitive most local markets actually are

📈 And why finding new vendors and landlords remains the industry’s biggest challenge

This episode is less about predictions, and more about perspective. If you want to understand where you sit relative to your peers, and how to use insight rather than instinct to guide decisions in 2026, this one’s essential listening.

📊 The full report is available free on the Unchained website

📩 Subscribe to the newsletter to receive future reports early

What if you could understand who lives in a property before you even walk through the front door?

In this special episode of the Voice of the Agent Podcast, we share a standout clip recorded live at the Voice of the Agent Conference at Bletchley Park, featuring Ben Nicholas, Head of Property and Real Estate at Experian, in conversation with Simon Leadbetter.

Ben reveals how Experian Mosaic uses household-level data to build a far deeper picture of the people behind the properties — from lifestyle and behaviour, to communication preferences and likely next moves. In one jaw-dropping moment, Ben describes how Mosaic accurately predicted his own age, family setup, home type, and shopping habits… just from his address.

The conversation explores why property has lagged behind other industries in adopting this kind of customer insight, how agents can move from property-led to people-led marketing, and why understanding your audience makes everything you do more relevant, more efficient, and more effective.

After the clip, Toby returns to explain how Unchained has partnered with Experian to make this level of insight accessible to estate and letting agents — without the traditional corporate-level price tag — and how combining customer insight with AI can supercharge your marketing.

The Voice of the Agent, full live videos: https://www.weareunchained.co.uk/tvota-2025-video

Unchained CustomerDNA Reports: https://www.weareunchained.co.uk/unchained-customer-dna

Estate agency is a trust business… and whether we like it or not, trust often gets decided before you’ve even said hello.

In this episode, Simon Leadbetter is joined by Alex Wood of Alexandra Wood Bespoke — the first female Savile Row tailor and a “menswear visionary” who’s built a modern luxury brand in a world of tradition, hierarchy, and (let’s be honest) a lot of blokes.

They get into:

🧠 Why first impressions still matter in 2026 (even if you hate shopping)

🧥 How to look credible, modern and human — without trying too hard

👔 Suits vs hoodies, ties vs open collars… and the real crime: the badly fitting suit

🧳 Capsule wardrobes, decision fatigue, and why “quality costs less” over time

🎯 Dressing authentically: finding “you” rather than copying a trend

🌟 Plus: who Alex would most love to tailor for (hello Idris 👀)

📚 Pre-order Alex’s book at alexandrawoodbespoke.co.uk

And don’t forget to subscribe to Voice of the Agent on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts for more data-led insights, guest experts, and conference highlights.

Why does buying or selling a home still feel harder than it should? And if conveyancing causes so many delays, why don’t we just… remove it from the equation?

In this episode of the Voice of the Agent podcast, we drop you straight into one of the most talked-about moments from the Voice of the Agent Conference at Bletchley Park. It’s a live panel debate exploring the relationship between estate agents and conveyancers, what’s broken in the home-moving process, and what “best practice” actually looks like when everyone’s under pressure.

Hosted by David Opie, the panel brings together Clare Yates, Matt Baldock and Simon Thomas, representing frontline agency, legal expertise and customer experience. Things really heat up when Russell Quirk throws a hand grenade of a question into the room: if other countries can complete transactions in weeks, why are we still stuck with a system that takes six months — and should estate agents just do the whole job themselves?

After the clip, Toby Martin unpacks what you’ve just heard and connects it to the hard data from Part Four of the Voice of the Agent Report, revealing how long transactions really take, where communication breaks down, who consumers blame when things go wrong, and what the minority of smooth-moving chains are doing differently.

If you’re an agent, a conveyancer, a lender, or someone currently stuck in a chain wondering why nothing has moved for weeks, this episode will feel uncomfortably familiar — and genuinely useful.

You can download the Voice of the Agent Reports for free at https://www.weareunchained.co.uk/thevoiceoftheagent

Stop what you are doing and complete the survey for January's Voice of the Agent Report: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TVOTAJan2026

The survey is only open for a short time, so don't delay - complete it today!

What if you could see around corners and spot shifts in consumer behaviour years before they show up in your pipeline?

In this episode of Voice of the Agent, Simon is joined by Will Ullstein, UK CEO of YouGov, to unpack what their data is really telling us about Gen Z, tomorrow’s consumer, and what that means for the property industry. They discuss why your own customer data will only ever tell part of the story, how nationally representative research fills in the gaps, and the very real strategic risk of running your business purely on gut feel and portal dashboards.

Will explains how YouGov’s panel works (including why people happily share Netflix viewing and bank data), how even a single omnibus question can unlock a full 360° picture of your ideal customer, and why research is no longer just for big brands with six-figure budgets. They also dive into AI: from using it to analyse open-ended responses in seconds, to YouGov’s new AI interviewer and data-driven personas that let you “talk” to your target audience before you spend a penny on campaigns.

Simon and Will also tease a new collaboration designed to give independent estate and letting agents access to serious YouGov and Experian firepower at an entry-level price – plus there’s time for pillow-fight stats, beans on toast, and the surprisingly wobbly career path from failed actor to CEO.

If you care about where the market is heading, how Gen Z will reshape expectations, and how to make better decisions with proper evidence rather than hunches, this conversation is a must-listen. Follow the podcast, hit play, and if you enjoy it, leave a review so more agents can find the show.

It’s Christmas Eve, and instead of diving into Voice of the Agent data, Toby Martin and Simon Leadbetter are taking a festive detour into the numbers behind the Great British Christmas. Expect the big debates (Father Christmas vs Santa, and yes… Die Hard), the nation’s favourite film and song, what’s really happening on Christmas dinner plates, and the surprising truth about family arguments.

Along the way, Simon gets gently interrogated about the Leadbetter household traditions, Toby tries to keep things vaguely on-brand (with mixed results), and together they attempt to define what a “statistically perfect” Christmas actually looks like. Merry Christmas - may your sprouts be optional and your data be judgemental.

Some links referred to in this episode...

🎸 The Story of Fairy Tale of New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUSNzqqLFT0

🐈 Mog's Christmas Calamity (Sainsbury's ad): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuRn2S7iPNU

🪖 1914 (Sainsbury's ad): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWF2JBb1bvM

In this special end-of-year episode of The Voice of the Agent Podcast, Toby Martin and Simon Leadbetter reflect on a transformative year in the property industry. They discuss the key findings from the recently released Part 5 of the Voice of the Agent report, which encapsulates insights from our inaugural conference at Bletchley Park and surveys agent sentiments heading into 2026. With discussions ranging from economic challenges and marketing strategies to the impact of AI on estate agency, Simon and Toby unpack the evolving landscape and what it means for agents.

Join Simon and Toby, as they share valuable takeaways and look forward to the exciting changes ahead in our monthly reporting format!

You can download the Voice of the Agent Report for free from https://www.weareunchained.co.uk/thevoiceoftheagent