OnTheMarket
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Latest property news
Hunters’ five-year OnTheMarket deal brings online marketing back to its HQ
The recent deal by stock market-listed estate agency Hunters Property Group to list all its franchisees properties via OnTheMarket.com (OTM) significantly changes the way its franchisees choose how to market their listings, it has been revealed. Until now it is believed that franchised branches were free to choose which portal they list their properties on and, at different times, have signed up to he OTM and either listed with Zoopla or Rightmove. But now that the ‘one other portal’ rule is dead in the water following the recent decision to demutualise OTM’s parent company Agents Mutual and float the portal on the AIM stock market, Hunters has taken the unilateral decision to move all of its franchisees on to OnTheMarket.com. A spokesperson for Hunters, said: “We can’t comment on the extent of the deal yet but we see it as a positive step for the whole network, which will provide the best solution in terms of creating exposure for our properties.” Portal choice Only a handful of Hunters’ franchisees list with Rightmove while 180 list with Zoopla out of its’ total network of more than 200 branches. “Some of the Hunters franchised offices have joined OnTheMarket on an individual basis…
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Latest property news
ZPG results: buying spree dents profits but revenues increase
ZPG has published its full-year results, revealing a substantial increase in turnover but smaller than expected profits. The group, which operates portals Zoopla and PrimeLocation, saw its turnover increase by 24% but profits only rise by 2%, reflecting the costs of its many acquisitions over the past year including – it was announced today – a Dutch AVM provider called Calcasa. It joins other acquisitions including personal finance website money.co.uk, agent software firm Expert Agent, agency website provider TecniWeb, agent print media and signage specialist Ravensworth and data firm Hometrack. This buying spree helped push up ZPG’s debt by £45 million to £191 million, or nearly 80% of its turnover for the year of £244.5 million, while its borrowings have increased in value by £110m to £266m. ZPG says it now has 14,772 branches signed up to its portals, a 6% rise compared to the same time last year, which helped push up revenue within its property arm by 41%. Revenue per branch This, the company says, is in part down to the 1,000 agents it claims have left OnTheMarket and returned to Zoopla over the past 12 months. ZPG also now says it has 969,000 listing on its sites,…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket branch listings sink to all-time low, claims ZPG
The number of branches listing on OnTheMarket has sunk to an all-time low of 5,500 which is 200 fewer than in August when it announced it was de-mutualising ahead of a stock market IPO, it has been claimed by ZPG. The portal giant says the number of branches to have rejoined its portals Zoopla and PrimeLocation after initially leaving to sign up with OnTheMarket has hit 1,000, while claiming that its own listing branches have grown to 14,750. Recent returning customers include 11 Martin & Co franchisee branches, London agency Hurford Salvi Carr’s six branches and Thames Valley and Chilterns agent Andrew Milson’s five branches. Competitive disadvantage “We are continuing to see agencies from around the country re-joining ZPG on a weekly basis as agents increasingly understand that they are at a competitive disadvantage when not partnering with us,” says Mike Goddard, Managing Director of ZPG Property Services. OnTheMarket’s own figures show that in August it had 5,700 agent branches listing properties on its portal, down from its launch total of approximately 6,500 branches, and that it currently has 2,700 estate agent clients. The ongoing agent drain from OnTheMarket to ZPG is puzzling; member agents of OTM’s parent company Agents…
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Latest property news
Arun Estates signs with OnTheMarket ahead of AIM flotation
OnTheMarket (OTM) has signed its first NEW significant agency group following its decision in August to float on the London Stock Exchange AIM market and demutualise. Arun Estates, which encompasses four agent brands and over 100 branches across the South East of England, has signed a five-year listing with the portal. Under the agreement, Arun Estates will advertise all its UK residential sales and letting properties on OnTheMarket.com, and has committed to “actively promote” the portal in its branches. Arun Estates’ best-known grand, Ward & Partners, already lists with both Rightmove and the ZPG portals. “It is a powerful boost to OnTheMarket that Arun Estates is committing to list its properties for five years at OnTheMarket.com,” says OTM Chief Executive Ian Springett (pictured, left) “Arun Estates is undoubtedly one of the leading, most successful agent groups in the regions where it operates and its support will substantially strengthen our position in the market.” Arun Estates, which includes Ward & Partners, Cubitt & West, Douglass Allen and Pittis (on the Isle of Wight), was born out of the sale by Prudential Insurance of its national estate agency business during the early 1980s. Arun Estates has also been busy on other fronts…
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High Court gives OnTheMarket.com flotation green light
The final hurdles that OnTheMarket.com faced in order to float on the London Stock Exchange have been cleared after the High Court of Justice Chancery Division (pictures, right) sanctioned the two key votes on demutualisation completed last week. The court approved the Members Scheme – which enables agents to turn their membership of Agents’ Mutual into shares, and the Loan Notes Scheme, which will see the Notes originally issued to the agents who helped fund the OTM start-up turned into equity. The court decision follows last Friday’s member vote, during which they voted overwhelmingly to convert their existing membership interests into shares, ushering in both a new company to replace Agents’ Mutual – OnTheMarket Ltd – plus the dropping of the ‘one other portal’ rule. “The High Court of Justice Chancery Division this morning sanctioned the Members Scheme and the three Loan Note Schemes which were overwhelmingly endorsed by our Members and Loan Noteholders at the Court Meetings on 6 September,” says Ian Springett, Chief Executive of OnTheMarket. We will now continue to the next stage of the process. OnTheMarket flotation The court decision clears the way for demutualisation, a process that will begin tomorrow before an Initial Public Offering (IPO)…
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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 agents vote overwhelmingly to demutualise and float
OnTheMarket is to demutualise and float on the stock market following a vote by its agent members. It is also to drop its controversial ‘one other portal rule’ and will now attempt to raise £50m from City investors. Nearly 90% of agent members of the website’s operator Agents’ Mutual voted to convert their existing membership interests into shares in a new company called OnTheMarket Ltd. Agents’ Mutual says 70% of members voted in person at the meeting in London yesterday or by proxy. After the vote is approved by a court hearing early week the demutualisation will then proceed on 12th September, and following an initial IPO on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) it is expected that some £50m will be raised by offering investors a minority stake in the new business. Advertising campaign This will value OnTheMarket at between £200 and £250 million. The money raise is to be used to take on Rightmove and Zoopla with a huge national advertising campaign on TV, digital and print media as well as significant radio and billboard activity. “I am very pleased at such a resounding demonstration of broad Member support for our strategic proposals for the business,” says 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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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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