OTM
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket openly questions Zoopla’s inventory claims
The war between OnTheMarket (OTM) and Zoopla continues this week, with Agents’ Mutual now querying the listings inventory detailed in Zoopla’s recent half-year trading statement. In its trading statement earlier this month, Zoopla Property Group stated that its listings inventory had increased by seven per cent from 828,000 on 1 April to 882,000 on 31 July. But whilst Zoopla’s UK sales and lettings search pages claimed property numbers totalling 878,288, OTM questions this rise by stating that searches conducted on the Zoopla website on 12 August returned only 675,540 properties in England, Scotland and Wales. “It is interesting to note that Zoopla has since reduced the claimed property numbers on its UK sales and lettings search pages so that the total now comes to 692,058 [as at 22 August]”, the statement from OTM noted. The figure of 692,058 for UK sales and lettings properties includes Shared Accommodation, which are provided by EasyRoomMate, and listings which are Sold Subject to Contract or Let, according to OTM. OTM suggested that Zoopla may have also been including its overseas property listings within the UK residential property figures. The statement added, “Zoopla’s Overseas Sales page now shows a figure for properties for sale which,…
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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
Portal brand awareness report puts Zoopla on top
Despite a sharp rise in the number of number of estate agents which have cancelled their subscriptions to Zoopla over the past year or so, with many of those agents opting to join rival site OnTheMarket.com (OTM), Zoopla has still seen a significant increase in website traffic, thanks largely to a high level of consumer brand awareness, new research shows. A study, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Zoopla Property Group, claims that more people have heard of Zoopla than any of the other UK property portals, including Rightmove. “This research reinforces how the Zoopla brand remains front of mind with consumers when thinking of property search and research,” said Lawrence Hall (left) of ZPG. But despite achieving a high level of national consumer brand awareness than any other UK property portal, Zoopla has seen the volume of estate agents listing their properties for sale and to let on their website drop by around a quarter over the past 12 months, largely due to the launch of OTM earlier this year. OTM, solely owned by the agents that list on the website, with more than 5,000 estate agency offices now signed up, has had a dramatic early impact on…
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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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Latest property news
Zoopla-OTM battle will “strengthen Rightmove’s dominance”
With membership now at more than 5,000 offices and with a significant number of member offices uploading their properties to the website ahead of any other portal, OnTheMarket.com (OTM) has already established itself as one of the UK’s leading property portals, but it is Rightmove that is expected to benefit the most from the launch of OTM, it has been claimed. An article on the popular investment website, The Motley Fool UK says that dominance by one company is commonplace in the internet industry, highlighting that the likes of Google, Facebook and eBay dominate their respective sectors. “Size matters, because of network effects and economies of scale,” it said. But although Rightmove is the biggest online property portal by traffic, it points to the fact that the website “still faces stiff competition from Zoopla.” “Innovations ranging from calculating the distance to the nearest railway station and archived listings have helped Zoopla to stay in a strong second place position,” it added. Only last week, Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) launched its Real-Time Listings Service, allowing its members to send updates to property listings on ZPG websites within minutes of being updated on the agent or developer’s system or website. The service…
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Latest property news
Online marketing strategy vital for estate agency success
A new survey of over 4,000 homeowners by Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) reveals that 94.2 percent expect their agent to automatically maximise the marketing exposure of their property, which includes listing the property on the major property websites.
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Agencies & People
Bad week for online agent
Online estate agent eMoov is under pressure for making unsubstantiated and misleading claims to home sellers over fees and asking prices, while their lodged complaint with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) against OnTheMarket (OTM) will not be followed up by the regulator. The CMA took over many of the functions of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading last year. Having investigated claims made by eMoov in an advert that its sales performance last year resulted in 99 per cent of the asking price being achieved for its clients compared to the national average of 96 per cent, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) concluded that that the statements were unsubstantiated. ASA said that sales data only covered the period of January to September 2014, while no comparable information relating to asking prices achieved by traditional estate agents in London was provided. The online estate agent also claimed that its customers had saved more than £11 million in fees by using its services because its business model depended on it selling a higher proportion of its inventory. But once again, this was panned by the ASA because it was based on the average fee its customers paid instead…
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Agencies & People
Zoopla loses nearly a quarter of its agents
Despite a significant increase in web traffic, a growing number of estate agents are cancelling their subscriptions to Zoopla to join rival site OnTheMarket.com (OTM). Shares in Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) dropped last week, after the firm reported that the number of estate agents listing their properties for sale and to let on the Zoopla website had dropped by 23 per cent over the past 12 months, largely due to the recent launch of OnTheMarket.com (OTM) which continues to have an adverse impact on its business. OTM, solely owned by the agents that list on the website, with more than 5,000 estate agency offices now signed up, has had a dramatic early impact on the market with its ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla, with the vast majority of agents opting to drop Zoopla. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, said, “Since our launch four months ago OnTheMarket.com has already taken almost one quarter of the estate and letting agent members from Zoopla Property Group. Less than 10 per cent of OnTheMarket.com’s member firms are using Zoopla as their other portal.” “In addition, OnTheMarket.com has already overtaken Zoopla in…
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Agencies & People
OTM is here to stay, says Ian Springett
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) has hit back at claims that its portal is struggling to establish any meaningful audience levels. Just over three months since the launch of OTM, competitor portal, Zoopla, has claimed that OTM is failing to have a significant impact on the market by citing data from independent web monitoring firm Hitwise which shows that website traffic to OTM fell by 13.5 per cent in April. But Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM, has described Zoopla Property Group’s (ZPG) claims as “inaccurate and speculative.” He said, “It is a fact that less than 10 per cent of the agent members of OnTheMarket.com have chosen Zoopla as their other portal. And it is a fact that the Hitwise figure showing a reduction in traffic of 13.5 per cent in April is wrong.” OTM reports that it has attracted more than 10 million visits since launching over three months ago, and that traffic levels have remained buoyant in May to the extent that OTM has just experienced its highest ever number of weekly visits. To date, OTM says that its users have viewed an average of 9.3 pages and spent an average of 6.5 minutes per visit. What’s more, with…
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Agencies & People
OnTheMarket claims 10 million visits in three months
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) claims to have attracted 10 million visits since launching three months ago. The agent-owned portal, launched with a view to disrupting the portal business and breaking the ‘duopoloy’ held by Rightmove and Zoopla, says it has achieved 90 million page views since 26th January, supported by a very heavy advertising campaign on national TV, in the press and online. In the first 100 days since it launched, OTM’s TV advert has been aired more than 5,000 times and watched by 44.8 million people. Across print media, more than 100 press adverts have run and our online adverts have generated around 155 million impressions, while their pay-per-click campaign has delivered some 55 million more. During April, OTM says it received 3.5 million visits with an average of 9.31 pages viewed and an average of 6.5 minutes spent on the site by each user. It says the traffic information was generated by Google Analytics. The latest website traffic data claims from OTM contradict Zoopla Property Group, which has issued a number of press releases in recent weeks claiming that the volume of visitors to OTM has been in decline, and that agents listing their properties on the website are not…
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