Agents’ Mutual
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Latest property news
Judges reject Gascoigne Halman appeal in OnTheMarket competition case
Connells-owned estate agency has ultimately failed in its expensive attempt to overthrow the July 2018 Competition Appeal Tribunal judgement.
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Latest property news
EXCLUSIVE: Agents’ Mutual and Gascoigne Halman return to court to fight it out again
Agents’ Mutual and estate agent Gascoigne Halman are to lock horns once more in the courts in two week’s time, The Negotiator can reveal. The Court of Appeal has disclosed that the two sides are due in court on November 27th for a three day hearing after Gascoigne Halman, which is owned by Connells, was given leave to challenge the original Competition Appeal Tribunal adjudication which took place in July last year. That found that Agents’ Mutual, which since the court case has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of OnTheMarket plc, was entirely legal in its pursuit of a then strictly enforced ‘one other portal rule’ which has since been dropped, and also its exclusion of online-only and hybrid agents and its listings’ ‘exclusivity’. The three judges also did not find that Agents’ Mutual had pursued any kind of concerted ‘boycott’ of Zoopla, as had been suggested during the original 10-day hearing. Agents’ Mutual “In July 2017, judgement was handed down by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in favour of Agents’ Mutual and against Gascoigne Halman Limited on all competition issues; the One Other Portal rule was upheld as lawful and enforceable and Agents’ Mutual was awarded £1.2m as an interim payment towards…
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Guest Blogs
‘How OnTheMarket was born’
About seven years ago a sales representative from one of the two major portals came to me and asked for a 50% increase in our yearly tariff. I was so horrified at the audacity of this proposal, that I thought I had misheard him. “Did you say 15%”? Even this ‘stuck in my craw’ as it was the equivalent of seven years worth of inflation in one hit. “No” he retorted, “I said 50%”, my worst fears were confirmed. He then tried to diffuse my mounting anger, by sheepishly asking me “not to shoot the messenger”. He explained that it was a diktat from the “head honcho” and there was nothing he could do about it. I said that I would reluctantly pay this outrageous amount, but asked if I could call an end to the meeting, since I had to get to work on an alternative plan for the longer term. What was the Alternative Plan? The plan was to invite 25 of the pivotal residential estate agents across the UK to a secret meeting at Zafferano, a restaurant in Belgravia. Everyone “turned up to a man” without knowing the context. I was flattered. The first question they asked…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket to end mutual status and float on AIM
The parent company of OnTheMarket.com, Agents’ Mutual, is to raise £50m by floating on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange 30 months after the mutually-owned property portal launched. The flotation will value OnTheMarket at between £200 million and £250 million, a sixth the size of nearest rival Zoopla. Much of the money raised from the City will be spent on a huge TV, radio, print and digital advertising campaign to raise awareness among consumers and, no doubt, stop agents jumping ship back to Zoopla. OnTheMarket’s flotation will also require existing agents who list on the site to convert their membership into ordinary shares in the new company, and commit to a further five year agreement to list their properties on OnTheMarket.com. “This is the beginning of a very exicting new chapter in our development,” says Agents Mutual Chief Executive Ian Springett (pictured, left). “For consumer and agents alike we are committed to creating a genuine agent-controlled alternative challenger business and brand to the two leading incumbent portals.” A minority stake will be offered to investors as part of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of new equity which will be used to give OnTheMarket the sort of…
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Agencies & People
Agents’ Mutual’s ‘one other portal’ continues to have an impact
Agents’ Mutual, the collective of estate agents launching a challenger property portal, OnTheMarket.com, with a view to breaking the so-called duopoly held by Rightmove and Zoopla continues to have an effect on the market with its ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla, despite the fact that the website does not launch until Monday 26th January 2015. In the past few days Chestertons has announced that that they will no longer be listing properties with Rightmove, while CKD Galbraith will be leaving the Zoopla Property Group (ZPG). Chestertons, a founding member of Agents’ Mutual, last week announced that it will be advertising on the Zoopla and Prime Location websites from January. It is widely acknowledged amongst the industry that Zoopla and its premium PrimeLocation website has taken substantial market share and is now the strongest performer in London. This is one of the main reasons for Chestertons choosing Zoopla Property Group. Robert Bartlett (left), CEO of Chestertons and a Founding Director of Agents’ Mutual said: “We have looked carefully at data collated over the past 12 months and the numbers clearly show that our properties get more views and our clients…
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