portal
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Supplier advice
Residential People – the free-to-list property portal
The Negotiator talks to Christopher May, Founder and Director of the property portal where you can advertise your property listings online for free – and reduce overheads.
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Marketing
OTM continues steady growth
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) has claimed another rise in traffic levels last month. OTM said that based on its own internal data from Google Analytics, the website achieved 5.6million visits in September, including 2.7million unique visitors, up from 5.4million in August. “We believe it is only a matter of time before we overtake Zoopla as the number two portal in terms of available UK property listings and provide agents and consumers alike with a credible alternative to the current duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla,” said CEO Ian Springett (left). However, despite OTM’s growth, their level of website traffic and brand awareness at this early stage of their existence remains low compared to what Zoopla and Rightmove are achieving, and a significant number of agents are now thinking of quitting the portal as a consequence, according to a report by Barclays. The report states that nine of the 100 OTM member agents that it apparently interviewed expressed an interest in leaving the site, while a further 35 said that they will review their membership. According to its last trading update, Zoopla said that it had attracted a net rise of 213 branches in the four months to 31 July, after winning back 100…
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Marketing
Blow for Zoopla as Chestertons leaves the portal
Zoopla was dealt a blow last week as Chestertons, one of London’s largest estate agencies with 30 offices across the city, announced that it would be leaving the site in to list its properties with Rightmove. The firm, a founding member of Agents’ Mutual, continues to list properties on OnTheMarket (OTM) and is therefore not permitted to list homes on more than one other rival website, under OTM’s ‘one other portal’ rule requiring, in effect, their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla. The typical scenario has an agent sticking with Rightmove and choosing between OTM and Zoopla, so Chestertons is unusual. “We had more and more of our clients telling us that they expected to see us on Rightmove and you have to listen to your clients,” said Chestertons Chief Executive Robert Bartlett. The launch of OTM earlier this year had an adverse impact on Zoopla’s business. A number of agents have cancelled their subscriptions with the online property giant in order to list homes with OTM. OTM is now claiming to be on course to replace Zoopla as the number two property portal by the end of 2016 on its way to achieving their medium-term…
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Latest property news
Country Life teams up with OnTheMarket
OnTheMarket (OTM) has formed an exclusive partnership arrangement with Country Life to create a co-branded online UK property search on the Country Life website which has already gone live. Providing authoritative coverage of the British art and antiques world, property, events and exhibitions as well as commentary on rural life in the UK, Country Life, which is owned by Time Inc UK, is one of the UK’s most iconic magazine brands, and is renowned for featuring many of the country’s finest prime homes. The property market has always been one of Country Life’s key priorities, both in their weekly magazine and online, according to Jean Christie, Country Life Publishing Director; “We work closely with high-end agents to provide a unique environment that attracts a discerning and high net worth audience, who have the money to invest in beautiful houses.” Christie added, “We’ve seen the tremendous success of OnTheMarket.com in attracting so many of the leading prime agents in the UK and we envisage the business continuing to grow. We see a major opportunity for our readers, for our website users, for our agent advertisers and for our business in providing a co-branded online search service, powered by OnTheMarket.com.” A recent…
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Latest property news
Zoopla delivers record number of appraisals to agents
Zoopla Property Group’s (ZPG) appraisal tool, which allows homeowners to directly contact prospective local agents to arrange a valuation of their property, delivered record levels of appraisal referrals to ZPG members in the first half of 2015, according to ZPG. ZPG reports that since January, prospective vendors and landlords have already sent in excess of 135,000 enquiries to ZPG member agents requesting appraisals, up 40 per cent on the corresponding period in 2014, and potentially worth in the region of £100 million in fees, based on Zoopla’s calculations, from resulting instructions so far this year. Given that the vast majority of property searches now start online, it is perhaps unsurprising that more prospective vendors are using the ZPG appraisal tool to contact local agents about selling their home. “Home movers are increasingly using our websites to identify and select local agents for valuation purposes,” said Jon Notley (left), Commercial Director at ZPG. Mr Notley says that these figures demonstrate his firm’s ongoing commitment to aiding its members in their efforts to winning new valuable business. He added, “Any agent not on our platform and therefore not visible in our unique appraisal tool will be losing out on these valuable leads…
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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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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
Zoopla acquires price-comparison website uSwitch
Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) has announced that it is to buy online price comparison site uSwitch in a deal worth up to £190 million. ZPG, which also owns a number of other websites such as Prime Location and Smart New Homes, said the agreed deal, at £160 million plus a performance-based earn out of up to £30 million, believe that the deal will help it deliver a wider property service to people seeking the best deals online. uSwitch, owned by Ulysses Enterprises Limited, enables consumers to find the best deals from utilities such as electricity and phone bills. It had revenues of £62.9 million and earnings of £16.2 million last year with 50.3 million online visits. It claims to have saved customers £112 million last year on energy bills alone. ZPG said that the deal to acquire uSwitch will allow its members to benefit from increased engagement with home movers and greater insight into their property requirements along with enhanced exposure to the further differentiated ZPG audience. ZPG is also developing new products that will create revenue opportunities for its members around home services switching. Alex Chesterman (left), Founder & CEO of Zoopla Property Group said, “This is a transformational…
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Latest property news
OTM growth ‘concerns’ Zoopla, says Ian Springett
OnTheMarket (OTM) Chief Executive Ian Springett (left) insists that web traffic to the OTM website has proved “buoyant” in March, despite accusations to the contrary, thanks largely to a multi-million pound advertising campaign that has provided “outstanding results.” Responding to claims by competitor portal Zoopla that web traffic to OTM last week, based on Hitwise data, fell by 25 per cent compared to the previous week, Springett insisted that the data is “inaccurate” and that OTM “stand by every figure we have previously quoted.” “Zoopla’s concerns about the growth of OTM at their expense are apparently increasing,” he said. “On March 6th and 7th, we passed the two million mark of unique users. Contrary to Zoopla’s claims, the traffic levels have remained buoyant throughout March. The results of our multi-million pound marketing campaign are continuing to emerge and the property-seeking public are appreciating the faster, cleaner, fresher search experience which OTM offers.” Lawrence Hall of Zoopla (right) insists that over the past couple of weeks “things have gone from bad to worse for OTM” with traffic falling “notably from an already low base and very low engagement levels per visit”, but Springett remains confident OTM will become the UK’s number…
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