OTM
-
Latest property news
OnTheMarket flotation confirmed alongside sweeteners for agents to sign long-term deals
The long-awaited OnTheMarket flotation on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is to proceed, it has been confirmed by parent organisation Agents’ Mutual. It is now four months since the vote to demutualise Agents Mutual which was to be followed by the creation of a new company OnTheMarket plc prior to an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on AIM. Agents Mutual has yet to announce the new company or IPO, but has revealed that it will introduce “appropriate incentives” to persuade new members to commit to five-year deals with OTM. This will include giving share options to “selected” agents joining the portal if they commit to long-term listings agreement. OnTheMarket flotation But agents who receive equity in OTM following the flotation are to be prevented from cashing in their shares too soon to “align their interests as shareholders with the success of the Group”. OTM has already begun the process of securing five-year deals in return for promises of shares in the company including, most recently, deals announced with Arun Estates, Chancellors and Hunters. But, as previously announced, the £50m it hopes to raise from the City will be spent on marketing and PR to drive traffic to the site and to…
Read More » -
Latest property news
Agent group Chancellors signs with OTM, but on condition IPO goes ahead
One of the UK’s leading agent groups, South of England, London and Wales based Chancellors has signed up its 50 branches and three brands to five years with OnTheMarket.com. But in an unusual move, Bracknell-based Chancellors has made its listing agreement with the portal conditional upon OnTheMarket successfully floating on the stock market. Assuming that goes ahead, Chancellors Group has agreed to advertise all of its UK residential sales and lettings properties at OnTheMarket.com and promote it via its branch and digital advertising activities. The agreement is a change of mind for Chancellors, which two years ago published a blog outlining how it did not back OnTheMarket and questioning the need for a ‘third portal’. The blog by Robert Scott-Lee, Group Managing Director at Chancellors (pictured), said in his blog: “How successful OnTheMarket.com will be in the long term remains to be seen, but it’s all down to the volume of traffic it is able to achieve. “If it does perform well, I hope to one day sign on the dotted line with them, but we will act in the best interests of our clients, and for now, we feel that is not with OnTheMarket.com.” OnTheMarket claims today’s agreement, which…
Read More » -
Latest property news
OnTheMarket takes legal action to prevent agency’s return to ZPG
OnTheMarket has taken legal action against one of its departing agents just hours after it had announced a return to ZPG’s portals. West-Sussex 15-branch agency Henry Adams had announced it was to leave OnTheMarket and rejoin Zoopla, its Chief Executive Philip Jordan (pictured, below) saying he was “very pleased to be back with ZPG”. The agency is based in Chichester but has branches in other parts of West Sussex as well as in Surrey and Hampshire. The corks were also flying at ZPG’s headquarters in London as Mark Goddard, ZPG’s Managing Director of Property Service, sounded equally ecstatic, saying he was “delighted to welcome back Henry Adams”. But the move proved too quick for OnTheMarket, which promptly issued legal proceedings preventing the move. Media coverage An OnTheMarket spokesperson said: “”We noted media coverage on 15 November 2017 that Henry Adams had signed an agreement with Zoopla to list all of its properties on its websites. “As at 16 November 2017, Henry Adams is not listing its properties on any of the ZPG websites. “The firm continues to list its properties at OnTheMarket.com in accordance with its current listing agreement and remains a valued member.” ZPG confirmed that the move by Henry Adams…
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
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…
Read More » -
Latest property news
ZPG flexes muscles as OTM battles on
ZPG reports that 40 estate agent branches left OnTheMarket.com (OTM) and returned to listing with them over two weeks in October.
Read More » -
Latest property news
Portal battles: ZPG’s 53m visits vs OTM’s 10m
Rome wasn’t built in a day and it’s clear that property portal businesses aren’t any different. While ZPG reports that it received over 53 million visits to its websites in September, OnTheMarket reports that it has arrived at the impressive 10 million visits in the same month. However, many measure growth as the more important statistic to watch and OnTheMarket’s £10 million visits is a rise of 79 per cent year on year, while ZPG’s total is equal to a rise of 13 per cent year on year. And, says ZPG, home hunters like using Zoopla tools to help find their next home – ZPGs property apps also saw strong growth with total downloads now at in excess of 8.3 million. ZPG also delivered over 2 million leads to its agent partners in September, with appraisal leads up 17.8% on the same period last year. Mark Goddard, Managing Director, ZPG Property Services, “We are delighted to report continued strong growth in our audience and the value we deliver to our partners. Vendors and landlords are increasingly using our websites to identify and select local agents and our appraisal lead tool is helping our partners win more business and it is not…
Read More »
