The best cloud phone system for a London estate agent or SME is a hosted VoIP platform that routes calls to desk phones, mobiles and a softphone app from one number, integrates with your CRM, and costs roughly £8–£18 per user per month. It should include UK numbers, call recording, auto-attendant and resilient routing so a dropped line never means a missed instruction.
What a cloud phone system gives a growing SME
A cloud phone system — also called hosted VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) — runs your phone service over your internet connection rather than a traditional phone line. There is no on-premises box to maintain. Calls, voicemail, numbers and routing are all managed through an online portal, and you pay per user each month.
For an estate agent, the practical upside is simple: a negotiator out on a viewing can take an office call on their mobile app, with the office number showing to the caller. A buyer ringing at 6:12pm hits an auto-attendant that routes to whoever is still available, not a dead line. Nothing is tied to a desk.
For any London SME, this means you can add or remove users in minutes, keep your existing numbers, and support hybrid and remote working without second lines or forwarding charges. It pairs naturally with your other systems — many providers tie telephony, Microsoft 365 support and connectivity into one managed stack.
Features that matter: call routing, mobile apps and integrations
Not every feature justifies its cost. Focus on the ones that change how your team actually works. Call routing and an auto-attendant ('press 1 for sales') ensure calls reach the right person without a receptionist manually transferring every one. Time-of-day and out-of-hours rules stop after-hours calls ringing out.
Mobile and desktop apps (softphones) matter most for field-based teams. A negotiator should be able to make and receive office calls from a smartphone, with the agency's number as caller ID — not their personal mobile. Call recording is near-essential for estate agents handling offers and compliance.
CRM and Microsoft integration is where real time is saved. Click-to-dial from your property or contact database, screen pops showing who is calling, and logged call history all remove friction.
- Auto-attendant and time-based call routing (out-of-hours, holiday)
- Mobile and desktop softphone apps with office caller ID
- Call recording and voicemail-to-email
- CRM and Microsoft Teams / Teams Phone integration
- Call queues, hunt groups and call reporting
- Number porting so you keep your existing London numbers
Per-user costs and setup fees compared
UK cloud phone systems are priced per user per month. Entry-level hosted VoIP typically runs £8–£12 per user for calling, voicemail, an app and basic routing. Mid-tier plans with call recording, CRM integration and analytics sit around £12–£18 per user. Microsoft Teams Phone plans are similar once you add calling and a UK number.
Setup and one-off costs are where quotes diverge. Expect handset costs of roughly £60–£180 per desk phone if you want physical phones — many SMEs now skip these and use apps. Number porting is often free or a small per-number fee. Watch for setup or 'onboarding' fees, which can range from nothing to several hundred pounds depending on complexity.
Call bundles usually include UK landline and mobile minutes; international calls are extra. A ten-user agency should budget roughly £120–£180 a month for a capable mid-tier system, plus any handsets. Always confirm whether the quote includes porting, training and support — a cheap per-user rate with paid support calls rarely works out cheaper.
PSTN switch-off: why waiting costs you
The UK's traditional phone network is being retired. Openreach has stopped selling new analogue and ISDN lines, and the full Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switch-off is scheduled to complete by the end of January 2027. After that, no business can run phones over the old copper network — everything moves to internet-based calling.
For London SMEs still on ISDN or analogue lines, this is not optional. Waiting until the last minute risks rushed migrations, number-porting delays and short-term disruption at exactly the wrong moment. Porting numbers can take days to weeks, so a planned move gives you room to test call quality and train staff.
Moving early also lets you redesign how calls flow rather than simply replicating the old setup. Many businesses combine the switch with a move to cloud hosted PBX or a Teams phone system, so telephony lives alongside the tools they already use.
How to judge call quality and support
Cloud call quality depends almost entirely on your internet connection and how it is configured. Voice is sensitive to jitter and packet loss, so a congested broadband line that feels fine for email can produce choppy calls. For call-heavy offices, a business-grade connection — ideally a leased line or well-provisioned FTTP — with Quality of Service (QoS) prioritising voice traffic makes the difference.
Ask providers how they handle resilience. If your primary connection fails, calls should automatically reroute to mobiles or another site rather than dropping. This is straightforward to configure but easy to overlook, and it is exactly what prevents a broadband fault becoming a day of missed enquiries.
Support quality matters as much as the platform. Check who answers when something breaks, response-time commitments, and whether you get a named team or a ticket queue. A provider that manages your connectivity and telecoms together can diagnose a call issue in one place instead of blaming the line.
Choosing a provider: red flags to avoid
London has no shortage of VoIP providers, and quality varies widely. The strongest signal is accountability — one team that owns the phone system, the internet it runs over and the support when it fails. Splitting those across vendors means finger-pointing when calls drop.
Be wary of long, inflexible contracts with steep early-exit fees, quotes that hide setup or porting costs, and providers who will not commit to a response time in writing. 'Unlimited' calling claims usually carry fair-use caps — read them. And if a provider cannot clearly explain how your numbers will port and how long it takes, treat that as a warning.
Finally, judge the migration plan. A good provider surveys your current setup, confirms your connection can carry voice, ports numbers on an agreed date and trains your staff — rather than shipping handsets and leaving you to it. If you want that handled end to end, our team can scope a system around your numbers and sites; talk to us about your requirements.
- Contracts with long tie-ins and heavy exit penalties
- Quotes that omit setup, porting or support costs
- No written response-time or uptime commitment
- Vague answers on number porting timescales
- Separate vendors for phones and the internet behind them