OnTheMarket
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Latest property news
Zoopla claims 700 branches have now returned from OTM
Zoopla parent company ZPG has today claimed that over 100 branches who initially left for OnTheMarket have returned to it since October, bringing the total number of returnees to 700. The company says recent returnees have included a clutch of multi-branch agents (see list below) and that the number of total property listings on its two sites (Zoopla and Primelocation) has increased by 10% compared to a year ago. Bacon & Co, (West Sussex) – 5 branches Jeanes Holland Burnell (mid-Somerset) – 3 branches Belvoir (Central London) – 1 branch Porter Glenny (Barking) – 4 branches Dixon & Co. (Stafford) – 2 branches Reid & Roberts (North Wales) – 3 branches Roberts & Co. (South East Wales) – 11 branches Sheens (Essex) – 2 branches Hodders (Surrey) – 4 branches Corrie & Co. (Cumbria) – 3 branches Loveitts (Midlands) – 5 branches Ian Odam of Somerset agency Jeanes Holland Burnell (pictured, left), says that in January 2015 he decided to join OnTheMarket after leaving ZPG. “After two years of supporting the OTM project we felt unable to sustain the membership with them any longer as we believed we were missing out by not listing our stock with ZPG,” he says. “In…
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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
Zoopla’s Alex Chesterman says OTM is a ‘failed experiment’
Alex Chesterman yesterday made several inciendary comments about rival OnTheMarket during a presentation and Q&A session with City investors. Chesterman was quizzed by one investor about why thousands of agents remain with OnTheMarket despite the ‘compelling ZPG proposition’ and why only 600 have returned. The ZPG CEO then went on the attack calling OnTheMarket a ‘failed experiment’ and that it was only ‘contractual reasons’ preventing more agents returning to Zoopla. Here is the full text of his reply. “We don’t pay much attention to it to be honest. If you look back two years when it started we didn’t think it would play out. “We didn’t think it was going to survive long term and would take a couple of years to play out. We’re approaching that now and I think we’re seeing the results of everything that we said. “It’s a failed experiment of their own making as a result of this one other portal rule. There are three very specific things you can point to that mark the end of OnTheMarket as far I am concerned, which have all happened in the past two or three months. “Our win-backs are accelerating, and for the first time since September…
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Latest property news
Welsh 12-branch agency quits OTM for Zoopla
Leading Welsh multi-branch agency Roberts and Co has says it is to leave OnTheMarket and re-join Zoopla. The company is based in Newport in South Wales and has a further eleven offices around the region and operates in both the sales and lettings markets covering Monmouthshire, Caerphilly, Torfaen and Blaenau. Roberts & Co, which was established in 2002, says that following an internal portal review it concluded that returning to Zoopla Property Group offers its vendors and landlords the best possible marketing for their properties. Director Mark Roberts (pictured), said: “It was the right time to review our portals [after a] Roberts & Co re-branding – the opportunities that Zoopla Property Group can now offer us as a result of the Property Software Group acquisition [by ZPG] are very exciting and now is the right time to be part of this.” OnTheMarket.com has already taken Roberts and Co’s properties and listing off its website. The Negotiator contacted OnTheMarket but its spokesperson said they did not want to comment. Roberts and Co are well known in the industry, and locally, for another reason. One of its other directors, Alan Darlow, is a friend of singer David Essex and in 2008 backed the…
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Latest property news
22% of public recognise OnTheMarket, says Zoopla research
The marketing mountain that OnTheMarket must climb to catch up its two main rivals has been revealed today after Zoopla published its latest brand awareness figures. Parent group ZPG paid market research firm Harris Interactive to quiz 1,100 people about which of the three main portals – OnTheMarket, Zoopla and Rightmove – they recognised. It found that 22% recognised OnTheMarket, an increase of 1% compared to May this year, while 90% recognised Zoopla and 83% Rightmove. The responses from the research were prompted – meaning the people surveyed were shown the portals’ logos and then asked if they recognised them – but Zoopla in addition asked them to recall the main portal brands unprompted. Zoopla says this research revealed that 47% of respondents recalled its name while 39% remembered Rightmove and 3% recalled OnTheMarket. The fruits of Zoopla’s ‘always on’ promotional activity is clearly bearing fruit. In recent years it has often outspent Rightmove on TV and, for a time, had a virtual monopoly on London’s black cab advertising. Also, in July this year it wrapped an entire fleet of London buses in purple. Gareth Helm, Group Chief Marketing Officer for ZPG (pictured), says: “Our ongoing investment in brand resulting in consumers…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket visits rise as Zoopla goes on the buses
Eight million visits recorded in June – an increase of 33 per cent since January, says CEO Ian Springett.
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Features
The battle for North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire has become a battleground for dominance among the portals, says Nigel Lewis.
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Latest property news
On The Market battle grows as Action Group is formed
The first meeting of the OnTheMarket (OTM) Action Group, run by Iain White, took place yesterday (Monday 9th May), with attendance from 100 OTM members who have given notice to OTM and received threats of legal action, along with others who would like to leave the portal but have not yet resigned. The group later issued a statement saying, “The estate agents believe they were misled by Agents Mutual, the owner of the OnTheMarket property portal, over promises made on joining that their subscription fees would always be equal to, or lower than, members who joined at a later date. It has now been suggested that, instead, Agents Mutual have in fact been offering subscriptions at a much lower price, disadvantaging earlier members. Iain White (left), consultant to the estate agency industry who organised the meeting, said, “More than 200 estate agents representing businesses across the length and breadth of the UK have registered their interest in taking action against Agents Mutual. There are a lot of aggrieved property professionals who consider that they have been unfairly treated by Agents Mutual. “On Monday morning our information session in Central London was full. The level of outrage among Agents Mutual members…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket is not going off, says CEO
One of last week’s noisier stories in the press and on social media was about OnTheMarket members and theo pen letter from the Competition and Markets Authority(CMA). Ian Springett (left), CEO, OnTheMarket (Agents Mutual)defended the portal’s position and its status with the CMA, asking Jungledrums to remind estate agents about their obligations under competition law when choosing online property portals to advertise their properties. “The CMA has been very clear in cautioning agents to act independently and not to collude. At OnTheMarket.com, we welcome that stance and have consistently given agents precisely the same advice to make any portal selection decisions independently. “For the record, there has been no suggestion from the CMA that OnTheMarket.com has acted improperly in any way. Indeed, in its reminder letter to agents, the CMA explicitly states that, “it has no reason to write to OnTheMarket in this connection at this time.” OnTheMarket certainly needs to defend its position, Mr Springett said, “Success attracts its detractors. The letter from the CMA triggered some predictably opportunistic attacks on us from some who are perhaps sensitive to the impact we are having by injecting competition and increasing choice in a portals market dominated by two big listed…
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