portals
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Latest property news
Metropix celebrates its seven-millionth floor plan
Metropix, one of the leading suppliers of floor plan based products to the residential estate agency market, has reached a major milestone within its tenth anniversary year with the creation of is seven-millionth floor plan. The floor plan was produced by Fergus Lindsay, Senior Valuer of Scotland-based agents Slater Hogg & Howison, which has 25 branches across the country. On completing the floor plan, which is for a two-bedroom loft-style apartment on the prestigious Ingram Street in Glasgow, the team at Metropix contacted the agent’s Candleriggs office to discover that the seven millionth planwas produced by Fergus Lindsay (right). To celebrate the milestone, a giant cookie was delivered to Lindsay and his colleagues to enjoy. Talking about the creation of the seven millionth plan, Brian Farrell, Director of Metropix, said, “When I set up Metropix ten years ago, I knew the market was ready to embrace floor plans as a mainstream marketing tool for selling houses. The appetite was there, however at the time, the only way you could produce such plans was via specialist CAD tools which were expensive and not easy to use. We therefore created Metropix to fill the gap and, here we are ten years later…
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Agencies & People
The rise of the virtual agent
Andrea Kirkby says reports of the demise of the high street agents are, currently, exaggerated, but, read on...
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Features
PORTALS Web warriors
After just four weeks in business, OnTheMarket has inflicted some serious wounds on Zoopla, while Rightmove’s fortress proves to be largely impregnable. A few weeks ago, few people outside the property industry had heard of OnTheMarket (OTM); a substantial number of those within the industry had heard of it either but weren’t too interested; and 20 per cent of agency branches actually bit the bullet and signed up to membership of the UK’s newest property portal. All fairly normal with a new venture, profile and credibility take time to establish, reputation takes longer, but who’d have thought that the arrival of another property portal would cause such a ruckus? Ruckus is definitely the right word here – dictionary definitions vary but include ‘a row or commotion’, a ‘rugby scrum’ and, ‘the main body of competitors not likely to overtake the leaders.’ Well, OnTheMarket’s stated aim was to disrupt the market and it is certainly doing so, at least it is disrupting the daily business of estate agents who seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time on forums, sniping and snarling about who’s bright enough to make the move and who is too daft to do so. But recent…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket could cost members ‘millions’ in legal battles, says Zoopla
Zoopla Property Group this morning ramped up its attack on OnTheMarket with a further statement that warns OTM members that they could be infringing competition law, leaving themselves open to litigation, fines and compensation costs. Zoopla Property Group’s statement said, “According to advice from top UK law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, if the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ever concluded that Agents’ Mutual Limited’s (AM) arrangements infringe competition law, not only would AM as a corporate entity be subject to fines and possible damages, but each individual member agent would also likely be liable based on their participation in AM. “The advice, provided to Zoopla Property Group plc (ZPG), states that, if the CMA at any time found an infringement of competition law, it could impose fines on each agency of up to 10% of their total annual turnover. In the case of an independent single branch firm the fines could run into the tens of thousands of pounds or for a larger firm such as Savills plc into the tens of millions of pounds. “The advice adds that any of AM’s competitors, including competing portals and excluded online agents and property developers that have suffered losses as a result…
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Agencies & People
Make your move
OnTheMarket.com launches on 26th January, asking agents to make a critical choice. We invited the three players to state their case for your business.
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Features
Online agents – what do they really offer?
Andrea Kirkby explores the world of the web-based estate agent.
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Property portals reviewed
After over 15 years of development and expansion we've all heard of Rightmove - but what about the rest? Here we list all of the property portals who have made it through to 2015.
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Features
The importance of being earnest
Results are everything, says PROPERTYdrum’s social media guru Tracy Wood, so make sure you ‘do the math’!
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Guest Blogs
Avoiding the void
Rental voids are an eternal worry for landlords everywhere. In many cases, the amount of money lost through a void period can be the difference between a landlord making a gain or a loss from their rental income. Similarly, for many property investors an inconsistent flow of rental income caused by extended void periods can result in a struggle to make mortgage payments. With a one month rental void accounting for over 8 per cent of a landlord’s annual rental income, there can be no doubt that minimising the amount of time a property lies void is an essential priority for landlords, particularly in a hostile economic climate. The good news is that with rental demand outstripping supply, landlords have the opportunity to significantly reduce the amount of time that their property sits empty. Monitoring the local market for demand and supply – and comparative rents, a bit of pro-active advertising, asking for, and listening to feedback are all routes to success. However, while many landlords feel that they can look after their investments perfectly well themselves, these ‘tasks’ can be challenging for landlords to effectively manage without the correct resources. So it makes sense for them to use a…
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