Marketing
News covering the marketing of residential property, lead generation, buying and selling and business development.
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City analyst names agents involved in portal juggling
A leading City analyst has released an incendiary report into portal juggling, warning investors that many agents including dozens of high street names use it to appear busier than they are on Rightmove. Well-known names on the lists include many of the UK’s high profile agents including Countrywide, Foxtons, Chancellors, Humberts and Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward while the online-only and hybrids agents highlighted include HouseSimple, eMoov, Yopa, Purplebricks and Tepilo. The report, which was compiled with the help of Robert May’s Rummage4 software, also reveals that although portal juggling is widespread across the industry, it is more prevalent among hybrids than traditional agents. Research by Jefferies Group LLP, which has 3,300 employees and offices in 30 cities across the world, reveals that although hybrid agents have 4% of the market, they account for nearly a third of the top 50 juggled properties. Of all agents that have juggled ten or more properties, hybrid agents account for 41% of all juggles while traditional agents, who have 96% of the market, account for 59% of juggles. The Jefferies report also reveals that Purplebricks has a sale agreed/listing ratio of 89.5% in contrast with Countrywide’s 60.2%, LSL’s 50.6% and Foxtons’ 48.8%, and asks…
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Rightmove shares slide as agents grumble
Rightmove announced full year results on Friday 24th February, reporting further success. Pre-tax profits rose from £137.1m in 2015 to £161.5m in 2016, up by almost 18 per cent. Revenues rose by 15 per cent to £220m. So why, on that day, did their shares slide down a steep hill – down 5.8 per cent to £40, wiping over £200 million off its value? Rightmove Chairman, Scott Forbes said, “Our audience, best in class platforms and significant property inventory advantage coupled with our focus on innovation at the core of our business drives our value proposition for the benefit of both our trade customers and consumers. Property data has always been at the core of what we do and we are excited about continuing to harness the power of our data to drive further transparency and efficiency in the property market, predict market opportunities and drive success for our customers and consumers.” There’s no doubt that Rightmove is doing well for its investors, so it is possible that the fall was due to the announcement of Nick McKittrick’s (pictured right) forthcoming retirement, as the national papers deduced, but could there also be growing unrest among Rightmove’s 20,121 Agency and New Homes customers? RIGHTMOVE…
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Rightmove tells agents: Get the price right to sell homes quickly
Following last week’s report from Which? on overpricing homes, Rightmove says that agents must get the price right to avoid deterring price-sensitive buyers. Rightmove reports that the price of property has increased by just 2.0 per ent (+£5,986), the smallest price rise at this time of year since February 2009; well below the average +5.0 per cent February uplift over the previous seven years. This contributes to a further slowing in the pace of price rises, with the annual rate of +2.3 per cent being the lowest since April 2013. Miles Shipside, Rightmove director said, “While the prices of goods in shops are rising at a faster rate, the pace of price rises in property coming to the market is slowing. They’re still 2.3 per cent higher than a year ago, but perhaps we’re approaching the territory where many buyers are unable or unwilling to pay what sellers are asking, given the negative combination of rises in the cost of living, tighter lending criteria, and a dose of Brexit uncertainty. The housing market has had a long sprint since April 2013 when the annual rate was last below this level, so it’s not surprising that upwards price pressure is running on tired legs…
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Zoopla claims 700 branches have now returned from OTM
Zoopla parent company ZPG has today claimed that over 100 branches who initially left for OnTheMarket have returned to it since October, bringing the total number of returnees to 700. The company says recent returnees have included a clutch of multi-branch agents (see list below) and that the number of total property listings on its two sites (Zoopla and Primelocation) has increased by 10% compared to a year ago. Bacon & Co, (West Sussex) – 5 branches Jeanes Holland Burnell (mid-Somerset) – 3 branches Belvoir (Central London) – 1 branch Porter Glenny (Barking) – 4 branches Dixon & Co. (Stafford) – 2 branches Reid & Roberts (North Wales) – 3 branches Roberts & Co. (South East Wales) – 11 branches Sheens (Essex) – 2 branches Hodders (Surrey) – 4 branches Corrie & Co. (Cumbria) – 3 branches Loveitts (Midlands) – 5 branches Ian Odam of Somerset agency Jeanes Holland Burnell (pictured, left), says that in January 2015 he decided to join OnTheMarket after leaving ZPG. “After two years of supporting the OTM project we felt unable to sustain the membership with them any longer as we believed we were missing out by not listing our stock with ZPG,” he says. “In…
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Leaders and Romans sign up to list all properties with Zoopla
Property Service Holdings (PSH), the parent company of leading estate agency brands Romans and Leaders, is to list all its properties on Zoopla. Until now Leaders, which is the largest independent estate agent in the UK, has listed the properties from its 120 branch network on Rightmove and Zoopla, while Romans’ 28 branches were only listed on Rightmove. But in May last year the two brands were brought together during a merger to create a £120m turnover company with a £35m war chest for further acquisitions. The announcement by the company means both brands will now advertise their combined inventory of some 40,000 sales, lettings, new homes and auction properties on Zoopla Property Group’s websites. The move ends speculation that PSH might have gone with OnTheMarket as its ‘second portal’. Peter Loverdos, COO at PSH (pictured, left) says: “We have been reviewing the property portal landscape for some time and as a result of the substantial marketing and innovative product ideas coming from ZPG, we decided that it is the right time to list all of our branches and properties with ZPG to the ultimate benefit of our customers. “We expect to expand materially over the next few years and need…
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OnTheMarket launches ‘heavyweight’ ad campaign
As the second anniversary of OnTheMarket.com looms next week, the portal has announced that it is launching a “heavyweight investment” in marketing campaigns both on Google and TV during 2017. This includes TV ad spots on up to 40 channels including More4, E4, Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports and Sky News and support for more traffic via Google search spend. The company has also highlighted agent enthusiasm for its portal from several multi-branch agents across the UK including Peter Symons of Stags, Tim des Forges from the Knightsbridge branch of JLL and Simon Hill of northern Home Counties agent Michael Graham. The three testimonials highlighted by OnTheMarket.com chief executive Ian Springett were all published in October and November last year. “We look forward to building on our successes and we remain as committed as ever to our long-term strategic objective of building the best portal for agents and consumers alike,” says Springett (pictured). The portal is highly secretive about how many agents have joined – or left – its service but a comparative study of its agent branch inventory reveals numbers are increasing compared to a year ago, despite reports of some agents leaving in recent months. For example, in December…
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New portal Yellf claims its leads will be better quality
You wouldn’t think there was much room for another property portal in the UK or anyone left with the money and courage to muscle in on the existing three. Despite this, a City-based company is launching Yellf which is to charge agents between £159.99 and £279.99 a month and says it has already begun contacting branches to sell packages. Yellf, which is short for Yellow Fish Property, hasn’t gone live yet but says it will be more than just a medium for listing properties offering a free ‘one-stop-shop’ to those buying or renting a home including agent reviews, price indices, market statistics, crime data and travel information. According to Companies House, Yellf was registered in November although it has been active on Twitter since September last year. Yellf also says its ‘information’ approach will deliver more serious qualified leads to agents than other portals because buyers and tenants will be less likely to be window shoppers, which in turn will “save agents time and money”, says founder and sole director Edwin Bouhene, 48. Agents will also receive an ‘unrivalled support package’ and be offered a paid-for tailored digital service that will include daily Facebook and Twitter content for agents. “The management team…
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OTM drops ‘one other portal rule’ for commercial property launch
OnTheMarket.com has launched a channel on its website for commercial property which the portal says will not feature advertising or additional information other than the listing. The channel is an attempt by OnTheMarket to match the services of rivals Rightmove and Zoopla, which also have commercial property channels. OnTheMarket.com is offering its new service to residential agents who already have commercial properties within their feeds and will be free until the end of next year to any agency listing with it. The portal is also dropping its ‘one other portal’ rule for its commercial listings but is to ban online-only agents from the new channel, as it does within its residential listings. “It is exciting to launch our new commercial property channel to complement our existing residential UK and overseas searches,” says Ian Springett, Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com. “It is a service which many of our member firms have actively encouraged us to develop and it represents yet another sign of growth and strategic intent for OnTheMarket.com. “We are looking forward to working with agents to build a high-quality search experience for commercial property-seekers.” The new channel will also be open to agents who don’t list residential properties with OnTheMarket.com. But OnTheMarket has its work cut out if it…
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OnTheMarket.com highlights ZPG ‘inconvenient truths’
OnTheMarket.com chief executive Ian Springett has countered ZPG CEO Alex Chesterman’s assertion this week that the Agents’ Mutual portal is a ‘failed experiment’. Springett says that while it ‘clearly suits’ ZPG to position his portal this way, he challenges some of the ‘inconvenient truths’ for Zoopla. “The number of UK agents listing on the Zoopla platform remains 22% down compared to the period prior to the launch of OnTheMarket.com,” he says. His comments are based on ZPG’s own Annual Reports for 2014 and 2016 which show that the number of agents advertising on the site has dropped by 3,000 to 13,373 since OnTheMarket launched. Springett also says that he believes Zoopla has, unsurprisingly, been using price to try and wrestle agents back off OnTheMarket. “Our direction of travel remains clear. While Zoopla Property Group claims to have increased the number of UK agents listing on its portals by 5% year-on-year, meanwhile the number of offices listing at OnTheMarket.com at the end of October 2016 had increased by 15% year-on-year,” says Springett. “The consumer appeal of the service is clear from record-breaking traffic in September of more than 10million visits, an increase of 79% year-on-year. These are not the achievements of a…
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Zoopla buys another agency tech provider
If Brexit has damaged the property market this year then Zoopla has managed to dodge the worst of it, its full year results reveal. Profits at parent company ZPG increased by 44% to £36.7m in 2016 while revenue jumped by 84% to £197.7m. Revenue from agents is up by 5% and the number of agents listing with Zoopla increased by 10% this year. ZPG says all its sites, which includes Zoopla, PrimeLocation, uSwitch and recently-acquired agent software provider PSG, totalled 600m visits over the past year. PSG is not its only tech acquisition. ZPG also reveal that it has bought Essex-based cloud agency website design provider Technicweb. ZPG hasn’t quite seen off the OnTheMarket threat despite the upbeat full year results. During a webcast this morning ZPG said its portal-only revenue is down 1%, due to both ‘churn’ created by OnTheMarket and ‘other headwinds’. But it is clear from the results that the purchase of PSG has been a major plank in ZPG’s strategy to grow its agency customer base by luring back OnTheMarket switchers, and today’s announcement that Welsh agent Robert and Co has returned to Zoopla from OnTheMarket would seem to confirm this. The Newport based company said ZPG’s PSG…
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