New build real estate CRM: cut your sales cycle by 40%

In a pressured new build market, developers face a dual challenge: lengthening sales cycles and increasingly demanding buyers expecting a seamless purchase journey. The average time between first contact and reservation agreement signature often exceeds 45 days. A CRM specialized in off-plan sales can reduce this by 30% to 40%, while significantly increasing conversion rates.

Why do generic CRMs fail in new build property?

Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive: these solutions, effective in other sectors, don't address property development specifics. Multi-phase development management, staged payment tracking, off-plan reservation workflows require native features that generic CRMs simply don't offer.

The result: months of configuration, spiraling development costs, and poor adoption by sales teams. Developers who tried this approach report negative ROI over the first 18 months.

What features distinguish a specialized off-plan CRM?

Native stock and development management

A CRM adapted to property development natively integrates:

• Multi-development management with real-time availability
• Dynamic pricing grids with modification history
• Interactive sales plans synchronized with stock
• Option and reservation tracking by plot

Workflows adapted to the off-plan journey

The off-plan sales process follows regulated stages: reservation agreement, cooling-off period, exchange of contracts, completion. A specialized CRM automates these workflows and generates alerts at key moments.

Integrated introducer portal

IFAs, estate agents, brokers: your introducers access their dedicated portal to view stock, track their deals and generate their commissions.

How does a specialized CRM impact your commercial KPIs?

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) reduction

Automation of stage payment calls and real-time collection tracking reduces DSO by 15 to 20 days on average. For a 50-unit development at £350,000 average price, this represents cash flow gains of several hundred thousand pounds.

Conversion rate increase

Intelligent lead scoring and automated nurturing sequences focus sales effort on high-potential prospects. Equipped developers see a 20% to 30% increase in their lead-to-reservation conversion rate.

GDPR and AML compliance

A specialized CRM natively integrates compliance controls: ID verification, source of funds checks, consent management. These features avoid penalties and legally secure your transactions.

How to reduce the deposit-to-exchange delay by 15 days?

Digitizing the buyer journey is the main lever. A modern CRM offers:

• Automatic generation of pre-filled reservation agreements
• Integrated e-signature with legal validity
• Purchaser portal for real-time progress tracking
• Automatic notifications at each process stage

Expert FAQ

What is the deployment time for a property CRM?

With a specialized solution like Unlatch, deployment takes 2 to 4 weeks, compared to 3 to 6 months for a generic CRM requiring specific developments.

What ROI can you expect from a specialized CRM?

Developers using Unlatch report administrative time savings of 30% to 50% per sales person, equivalent to 1 to 2 FTEs on a 5-person team. ROI is typically achieved in less than 6 months.

Does the CRM integrate with existing tools?

The best property CRMs offer native integrations with property portals (Rightmove, Zoopla), e-signature tools and accounting software. An open API enables bespoke connections.

Why Unlatch is the choice of leading developers

Unlatch was designed by property development experts to address the sector's specific challenges. The platform covers the entire off-plan sales cycle: from lead capture through to completion and snagging.

Over 500 developers trust Unlatch to digitize their sales. They report an average 40% reduction in sales cycle time and 25% increase in commercial productivity.

Take action

Want to assess the impact of a specialized CRM on your commercial performance?Request a personalized demo with one of our experts.