Ian Springett
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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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Latest property news
OnTheMarket wins claim against Gascoigne Halman in long-awaited tribunal decision
OnTheMarket has won the Competition Appeal Tribunal case it brought against Gascoigne Halman after the agent, following its acquisition in October 2015 by Connells, refused to abide by OnTheMarket’s ‘one other portal rule’. After the ruling OnTheMarket Chief Executive Ian Springett (pictured, below) accused Zoopla of funding the action, and also said that he intended to recoup legal and other court costs from Gascoigne Halman, particularly so because “the manner in which our opponents conducted the case has caused us to divert considerable resources and management time”. Gascoigne Halman said during the hearings that its contract with OnTheMarket was in effect void because what it believed are restrictive clauses within it were in breach of Section 2 of the Competition Act 1988. These include the ‘one other portal rule’ which requires participating agents to only use two property portals, the ‘bricks and mortar rule’ prohibiting online agents from joining OnTheMarket, and the ‘exclusive promotion rule’ that prevents agents from promoting their membership of Rightmove or Zoopla. The legal process was triggered when Gascoigne Halman listed its properties on all three property portals in defiance of OnTheMarket. OnThemarket subsequently sought a judgement on the matter through the tribunal system to prove…
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Latest property news
Over 800 OnTheMarket agents have returned to ZPG, says Goddard
ZPG has today claimed that 808 branches have returned to its portals over the past two years from rival OnTheMarket.com since Agents Mutual launched it in 2015. And ZPG senior figure Mark Goddard (pictured, left), who heads up its Property Services division, has gone on the attack, saying that agents who spend their marketing budgets on OnTheMarket are doing so “inefficiently”. Recent returnees include 16 agency branches which ZPG says have moved over during the past week, helping increase its returning total by 58 since it last reported on its attempt to persuade agents back from OnTheMarket. This was within its 24th May half-year results. “We do not comment on individual agent relationships but the facts remain the same as they did last week when Zoopla gave a similar update,” says Ian Springett, Chief Executive of Agents’ Mutual (pictured, right). “OnTheMarket.com continues to have a positive material impact on the property portals landscape.” “Many thousands of agents switched from Zoopla/Primelocation to join us. Many thousands of agents continue to support the objectives of the business by creating a genuine alternative portal for consumers and agents alike. Many thousands of agents have not returned to ZPG portals with their advertising budgets…
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Latest property news
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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Latest property news
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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Latest property news
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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Agencies & People
Big boost for OnTheMarket
Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency have announced their membership of OnTheMarket.com. Both part of the Nottingham Building Society, the two brands have a total of 37 branches. They will now be advertising all of their properties for sale and to rent at OnTheMarket.com and Rightmove. With more than 25 years’ experience as independent estate agents, Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency are amongst the largest regional estate agencies with offices in nine counties. OnTheMarket.com announced on Wednesday, January 14th, 2016 that the level of overall support for the portal had risen beyond 6,500 estate and letting agent offices across the UK, which is an increase of more than 50 per cent since this time last year. The announcement comes eight weeks after OnTheMarket.com revealed support had exceeded 6,000 offices. The figure consists of contracted members and agents who have signed a Letter of Intent to join OnTheMarket.com when total support reaches 7,500 offices – which is OnTheMarket.com’s next major milestone. Su Snaith (left), Head of Estate Agency at the Nottingham Estate Agency and Harrison Murray Estate Agency, said, “The achievements of OnTheMarket.com over the last year have been impressive. It is already established as a…
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Marketing
Zoopla returns to growth
Zoopla ended last week as the one of the highest risers on the FTSE 350, as it returned to growth, the portal announced last week. According to its latest trading update, the property website has attracted a net rise of 213 branches in the four months to 31st July. The news triggered a ratings upgrade for Zoopla from ‘sell’ to ‘buy’, with Broker Panmure Gordon suggesting that shares in the portal look undervalued. Zooplalost a significant number of agency subscribers due largely to the launch of OnTheMarket (OTM) earlier this year and its restrictive ‘only one other’ portal rule. However, the group said that it had won back 100 agents in recent months – many from OTM – with market churn also nearing historic levels, according to Zoopla. The group also announced that the volume of people visiting its website remained flat at 45.6 million, which is significantly below Righmove, but towers above OTM’s 5.2 million visitors. Panmure Gordon analyst Jonathan Helliwell told the press that “near-term, OTM’s growth appears to have stalled.” He added, “Zoopla’s inventory and traffic are holding up pretty well, and the housing market looks to be picking up. We think the stock could continue to…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket posts record traffic
OnTheMarket (OTM) reports that the level of traffic and unique visitors to the portal hit a record high in June. Based on Google Analytics data, the property website claims it recorded 4.4 million visits, with more than 2 million unique visitors. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, said, “We are continuing to see strong engagement from consumers in terms of pages viewed per visit and time on site and a high percentage of repeat visitors. “This reflects both the quality and range of agents and properties listed with us and the usability of the portal. “Our ongoing multi-million pound national TV, press and online advertising campaigns continue to work really hard at driving active property seekers to OTM.” With membership now at more than 5,000 offices and growing, and with around a quarter of member offices uploading their properties to OTM ahead of any other portal, Springett insists that OTM “is already a must-view website for the key audience of serious property-seekers”. Springett remains confident that OTM will replace Zoopla to become the number two portal by the end of January 2016 on their way to achieving their medium term objective of challenging the market leader, Rightmove. But for…
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