Zoopla is now just 1,000 branches off matching its arch-rival Rightmove, its latest published list of advertisers reveals.

The portal says it has closed the gap since lockdown and that 1,000 additional branches are now listing with Zoopla or 18,000, its highest number since 2017.

Rightmove, on the other hand, revealed in its latest list published within its annual results that it had lost around 3% of its branches, which totalled 19,158.

This means there is now just a 5% difference between Zoopla and Rightmove in terms of branches listed.

Pandemic offers

Zoopla would not confirm or deny that its attempt to wrestle agents off its rival with a clutch of exclusivity deals during the pandemic was behind the surge in branches.

But it did tell The Negotiator: “In terms of what’s behind it we did invest £30 million in our agents and the fact that a 1,000 have joined since lockdown shows this resonated with the wider market.

“Outside of that we’ve invested big in customer service and product and technology and this is something we know is vital to agents.”

But the surge may also be down to the ongoing sales boom – Zoopla says the sales pipeline is now 50% larger than this time last year with 100,000 sales set to spill over into the first weeks of the New Year.

Andy Marshall (pictured), Zoopla’s Chief Commercial Officer said: “It’s a competitive time for portals but what’s clear is more and more agents are choosing Zoopla as their partner of choice as they seek to capitalise on the buoyant housing market.”