Property portal with just 130 agents beats Rightmove to top spot
ESPC, which is a property portal for Scottish estate agent solicitors, claims independent market resesarch shows it is the website of choice for vendors.
Scotland’s leading property portal has claimed that it is now ahead of Rightmove as the website of choice for vendors and is joint first in the market for buyers.
ESPC, which is strong in the Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife, Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway housing markets, began life as an estate agency called the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre in 1971, later launching a magazine and then a website.
The organisation went on to become a portal for properties foir sale in Edinburgh but later expanded its geographic reach to include the rest of Scotland in 2001, and now has some 130 solicitor estate agent firms uploading to its site.
The company says the claim to be ahead of Rightmove is backed up by independent market research, and coincides with its new ‘property lounge’ on George Street in Edinburgh.
Local needs
“This recognition is a direct reflection of the hard work we’ve put into building a platform tailored to local needs,” says Paul Hilton (main image) ESPC’s CEO.
“Being the first choice for local sellers and a top source for buyers is an incredible validation of our approach. Our connection to local buyers and sellers is something that, together with our ESPC Solicitor estate agents, we have been working hard to deliver for over 54 years.
“This milestone comes as ESPC continues to invest in technology, customer service, and local partnerships – all designed to make the selling and buying experience smarter, smoother, and more personalised.”
ESPC is not the only regional property portal to pip Rightmove to the No.1 spot – Northern Ireland for example has the recently-merged PropertyPal and PropertyNews.com which between them take the lions share of agent listings.
There’s an inaccuracy in this article. ESPC has never been an Estate Agent in its own right, it has always been a member organisation, a ‘portal’ or marketing umbrella for Solicitor Estate Agents…probably the very first of its type! Initially publishing a weekly list of properties for sale, that later became it’s own paper, showroom, website etc. It’s one of the reasons why Trading Standards recently commented that Scotland is way ahead of the rest of the UK when it comes to selling houses, because Solicitors and Estate Agents work together under one roof.