OnTheMarket targets independent agents as it launches war with ZPG

OnTheMarket has come out fighting five days after its stock market flotation, telling its new City backers that the company is to target independent agents and has already signed up 81, with more in the pipeline. “The estate agent sector is highly local in character and early indications are that we are on track in terms of creating local momentum in the marketplace up and down the UK,” says Ian Springett, CEO of OTM. “The core proposition of the business remains the creation of an agent-backed, full-scale property portal to disrupt what is otherwise a duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla by offering a premier search experience to consumers whilst charging sustainably fair prices to agents.” But the portal also says it is targeting larger estate agency groups and has already to signed up its first a to five-year deal since launching on the AIM stock market. This is the 18-branch agency Butters John Bee which, as well as signing up to OTM, has withdrawn its listings from ZPG’s portals. The agency, which has branches across Shropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands, was bought by the SpicerHaart group in September last year. Butters John Bee is essentially now aligning itself…