portals
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Marketing
Portals remain ‘valuable lead generators’, says housebuilders
With more househunters than ever now searching for their next home typically looking online on one of the major property portals, it is not just crucial that estate agent maintain an online presence that goes beyond simply listing properties on their own website. Senior housebuilders have concluded that they should be listing homes on the portals too. A recent gathering of senior professionals from the UK new home building industry raised a healthy debate about the future of portals and online content accessibility for new homes available to consumers. Thirteen senior figures, representing 80 per cent of new homes currently being developed or in the pipeline in the UK and with an estimated portfolio value of £1 billion, concluded that portals are still valuable lead generators. It was agreed that portals serve as a critical central resource of whole market offerings in one place for consumers who are not necessarily brand loyal when it comes to a new home purchase. The London Lunch was hosted at The Ivy by New Home Finder and facilitated by Dave Bexon (left), Group Sales and Marketing Director of Redrow Homes. It was attended by Redrow Homes, Bovis, Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Linden, Kier Living, Miller…
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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
Property portal supremacy
Marc Da Silva asks, “which portal is winning the battle for agents?”
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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
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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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
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
Zoopla share prices dip after Ofgem probe
Shares in The Zoopla Property Group (ZPG), which recently acquired energy provider comparison site uSwitch, dropped by 15.9p to 258.7p at the tail end of last week, following an Ofgem investigation into whether two or more companies providing a supporting service for the energy industry breached competition law. Following shareholder and FCA approval, ZPG last week completed its acquisition of uSwitch, the comparison website and lead generation engine for energy and communications switching. But while ZPG said that the deal was designed to reaffirmthe company’s mission to be the most useful resource for consumers and most effective marketing partner for professionals operating within the property industry, the acquisition may actually prove to have been badly timed. The concern for ZPG is that uSwitch, along with MoneySupermarket, has been asked by Ofgem to provide information in relation to an investigation over whether companies supporting the energy industry have broken any rules. Despite the pending investigation, the enlarged ZPG group is now working on developing products which will directly benefit ZPG members by allowing them to source the best gas, electricity, broadband, TV and phone deals in the market and earn fees whilst saving money for their clients. The aim is that…
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Agencies & People
Zoopla and Rightmove provide ‘competitive advantage’ – Connells
A detailed analysis of email leads delivered by Zoopla and Rightmove throughout 2014 show that the level of duplication between the two major portals is lower than previously thought, the Connells Group has claimed. Internal data from Connells reveals that of all consumers who sent email leads through the major portals, 93.8 per cent were unique to either Zoopla or Rightmove with only the remainder duplicated between the top two portals. What’s more, Connells claims that for the highest value market appraisal leads, 99.9 per cent were unique, with just 0.1 per cent duplication. David Plumtree (left), Group CEO Estate Agency Connells Group, said, “With the recent launch of Agents’ Mutual we were keen to confirm the value delivered to our network by the major property portals, reaffirming the low level of duplication of leads between the two main players, which has continued into 2015. “The value of being on both Zoopla and Rightmove is clear, and remains the best choice for our customers and network of agency offices in 2015.” As a shareholder in Zoopla, the Connells Group has opted not to sign up to OnTheMarket.com (OTM), which launched earlier this year. Meanwhile, Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) has confirmed…
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