In Marseille, Liberkeys holds the keys to digital real estate

The start-up sets up in front of the Old Port at the third places Now Coworking

Liberkeys revisits the real estate agency concept with a heavy dose of digitalization. Logically, the streamlined business model enables it to lower its commission to the flat rate of €4,990. As a result, it took only two years for Liberkeys to get a foothold in six French cities, including Marseille since October 2020. When it was searching for office space, Liberkeys was assisted by the economic development agency Provence Promotion.

Liberkeys chose the Now Coworking center in the Old Port, where it opened for business in October 2020, following on successful launches in Paris, Nice and Lyon, then Lille and Montpellier. Liberkeys promotes a new approach to real estate that leverages technology to improve the customer experience and simplify transactions with a fixed commission of €4,990.

"Project developers conduct their property searches on the Internet. That means the role of our agencies is not to be a shopping gallery like traditional agencies. Outside our engineering team, our costs are substantially lower than those of a classic agency. We were looking for flexible offices downtown," explains co-founder and CEO of Liberkeys, Thomas Venturini.

To simplify its real estate search and recruiting work, Liberkeys took advice from Provence Promotion. Just one month after opening, Liberkeys Marseille is preparing to hire its fifth employee. "We are strong believers in the value of assistance on the ground. As soon as we target a city, we contact the chamber of commerce and local development agency which help us settle into the region. Provence Promotion advised and supported us from day one," notes Thomas Venturini.

Augmented realtor

The one-time customer experience expert at Amazon was burned by a real estate purchase gone wrong, so he decided to channel his digital expertise into real estate transactions, 30% of which are still completed without the intervention of a professional.

Launched in January 2018 by three co-founders, Liberkeys raised €5 million from Crédit Agricole Immobilier and business angels to fund its intense growth. "We are at 100 sales per month. We're aiming for 500 monthly transactions by the end of 2021," adds Thomas Venturini, who expects a return on investment starting in 2021.

The three-year-old company has 100 employees, including around 20 engineers and data scientists.

Liberkeys has plans to go even further by working with independent real estate agents on the outskirts of cities. It also intends to roll out its technology to traditional agencies. Given the health and economic crises, those agencies are operating in a deteriorated environment. The future looks bright for virtual property tours!