A new UK property platform has launched in Basildon with a deliberate break from the model used by national property portals: homeowners can request free side-by-side valuations from competing local estate agents without sharing their phone number, email, or identity until they choose to.
ValuQ (valuq.co.uk), founded by Basildon resident Evren Ergin, lists only independent local estate agents and went live this month. Four founding Basildon estate agents back the platform, with a local football club sponsorship arrangement currently being finalised.
The platform’s core design responds to a long-standing UK homeowner complaint: when a homeowner asks a major property portal for a valuation, their contact details are typically shared with multiple estate agents who then call repeatedly over weeks, often before the homeowner has decided whether to actually sell.
“Most of the property market starts with a homeowner filling in a form, getting an inflated valuation built to win their listing, and then spending six weeks fielding cold calls from agents,” said Mr Ergin. “ValuQ does it differently. The seller sees what every local agent on the platform thinks their home is worth, on one screen, side by side, and their phone number stays private until they pick one.”
The platform charges its agents only after they win their first instruction through the service. Homeowners pay nothing at any point. The pricing model means ValuQ does not earn revenue from valuations themselves, only from successful agent sales.
“This is a Basildon platform first,” Mr Ergin said. “We expand to other towns from here, but Basildon comes first. The local economy matters. The local agents matter. The homeowner’s data matters. That’s the whole point of it.”
ValuQ has already received its first organic valuation request from a Basildon homeowner since launching less than a month ago. The platform is preparing partner-listings on a Trusted by ValuQ page, which will feature local conveyancers, mortgage brokers, accountants and other property-adjacent businesses in the Basildon area.
The platform deliberately uses human valuations from real local estate agents rather than algorithmic or AI-generated estimates. An AI valuation engine that the platform initially trialled was removed in April 2026, with the founder stating that AI valuations were inconsistent with the platform’s transparency principles.
ValuQ joins a small but growing UK proptech category focused on homeowner data protection in property transactions, alongside wider industry calls for stronger regulation of consumer data sharing across the property sector.
