BLOG: ‘Industry had a chance to end the property portal duopoly and blew it’
Glentree founder bemoans the opportunities lost when the portal he helped found - OTM - was sold to a US financial firm.
The monthly raiding of agents’ coffers by the UK’s property portal operators is as predictable as inflation.
They have the industry by the ‘Jackson Pollocks’ and they are using their power to create their 74% profit margins and… ‘twas ever thus’.
But may I remind readers that I worked like a trojan without remuneration and at a cost to my business to start OnTheMarket.com (OTM) some fifteen years ago, for the purpose of providing a buttress against the ravenous appetite of the two other portals – Rightmove and Zoopla.
Dodge City
Yes, it did take a while to gain traction, which was only to be expected, but with proper funding this could have been ‘The Sheriff that kept law and order in Dodge City’.
Instead, the former board at OTM decided, in their wisdom, to ‘sell their souls to the Devil’ by not only crystallising a thumping 33% loss on the issue price of the shares, but at the same time gave up all vestiges of control of portal fees for the agents.
Need we be reminded that most enquiries today start online and to have portals with their foots on the throat of the estate agency world, is an ignominious spectacle.
Stop the tide
While Shaun Adams, of Cooper Adams, has this week made a laudable call for an investigation into the portal’s charges, frankly, I am afraid to say that the chances of him succeeding is a smidgeon short of zero and in my humble opinion, if he tried ‘to stop the tide’ it may be more efficacious.
When I invited the ‘great and the good’ of the residential agency world to a secret meeting in the cellar room of restaurant Zafferano’s on the 22nd November 2010, everyone looked to me as to why they were attending such an august gathering without a formal agenda.
Pips squeak
I recall my opening remarks, ‘Gentlemen, as China’s ‘Belt and Road’ world domination plan is based on a fifty-year gestation period, the agents’ outlook on our industry has a two-week horizon.’
They asked me what I proposed by way of a solution and I said we must have a utility, a property portal, owned and controlled by the estate agency industry, in order to counteract the avaricious and predatorial instincts of the existing portal world, which are bent on a desire to squeeze the agents until ‘the pips squeak’ (apologies to Denis Healey from his speech in Lincoln, February 18th, 1974).
Thumbscrew
I wouldn’t wonder that Zoopla and OTM (the latter now owned by CoStar), as night follows day, will do the same and the thumb screw will tighten further around the financial genitals of the agents, ad nauseam.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Author: Trevor Abrahmsohn is Chief Executive of estate agency Glentree Estates.
I agree I invested in OTM and still do it was the only way to rid us of the RIGHTMOVE MAFIA but it needs all independents to sell their worth and that of OTM rather than Rightmove I have been banging on about this for 10 years. PLEASE STOP PAYING RM for their extortionate appalling service, what is wrong is that most agents don’t work together to make things work better, ever thus!
I never forget when I attended the OTM launch and just did not agree with the principle of giving up Rightmove or Zoopla for an OTM subscription. The reason I didn’t agree with it, because I absolutely predicted the changing of the goal posts by OTM later down the line – and they did – it relaxed the rules on this silly restriction.
Well said Trevor but unfortunately just a lot of hot air and told you so, this may help you vent some frustration but does nothing to change history.
It’s a unique situation that the portals have, being fed the product they need to provide their service and then biting the hand that feeds them and the hand thanking them for it. Wouldn’t it be great if you could walk into a restaurant eat their food and then charge the restaurant for feeding you!
The divide and conquer position that the portals hold is only possible due to the weakness of the sheep that we are, me included I’m afraid to say. we are only a small 3 office firm so don’t have any real power to make change. As long as the big corporate players with 100 plus offices all cowtail and bend over to the good old rogering they get every day then unfortunately we have to take it the same way. It’s a shame the lily livered CEOs and MDs running these companies can’t form a G7 type framework which could then influence and combine a UN type organisation behind
them. With unity the RM and ZPL dictatorships could at least be controlled if not conquered.
I think in reality AI and the ability to do an online search with very specific criteria will mean the publics habits change sooner rather than later, portals are becoming outdated. Agents should focus on skilled staff and a great website in my view.
I totally agree and why we still see agents promoting listings on social media with links back to the portal listing rather than pushing traffic to their own websites is baffling. Not to mention having links to said portals on their own websites!