Leading property portal expert Mike DelPrete has made blistering comments about the chances of challenger portals like Boomin toppling incumbents in a blog published yesterday evening in the US.

Delprete, who is recognised as the global expert on the world’s property portals, says Boomin’s current attempt to take on Rightmove and Zoopla is just one of many efforts around the globe underway at the moment.

But although he clearly admires many challenger portals’ efforts to topple incumbents’ monopolies, has is less kind about their chances of winning.

Citing Rightmove’s equivalent in the US, Zillow, which holds an even steelier grasp of American agents’ marketing spend than Rightmove does in the UK and even fewer rivals, DelPrete says: “Attempting to directly compete with market-leading property portals is an incredibly difficult proposition, with success unlikely.”

Traffic is hard

DelPrete says that challenger portals often look good because they successfully persuade agents to list their properties on their platforms, but that ‘building traffic is hard’.

He says homeowners want to advertise their biggest asset in the one place buyers are guaranteed to look.

“Through the years, the top portals have maintained their lead against billion-dollar, multinational media organizations, industry-backed, publicly listed upstarts such as OnTheMarket vs. Rightmove and private-equity backed #2’s such as Zoopla vs. Rightmove,” he says.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been thrown against the top portals for years with no effect on their dominant position whatsoever.”

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