property portals
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Latest property news
Huge difference in traffic to three main property portals revealed by latest ZPG results
ZPG has revealed how much traffic it drives to its various property portals and, the latest figures show, they were visited 68 million times during January, trailing Rightmove by 52 million visits on average but well ahead of OnTheMarket’s 14 million. ZPG’s figures includes 58 million visits to its three property portals; Zoopla, PrimeLocation and SmartNewHomes, while the remaining ten million visits were to its other websites such as uSwitch and the recently-acquired Money. ZPG also says its property websites enjoyed a 10% year-on-year uplift in traffic and, as evidenced by the sea of faces staring at smartphones in Britain’s streets and train carriages, that 60% of its portal traffic now comes via mobile devices. Property portals Visits to its comparison website uSwtich increased by 7% year-on-year, the company says. “We’ve had a great start to the year with a record of over two million visits per day to our websites in January,” says ZPG CEO Alex Chesterman (pictured, left). “These figures demonstrate that consumers are highly engaged with the services we provide and that we continue to deliver incredible exposure, value and results for our partners.” These latest ZPG figures would suggest that Rightmove’s average monthly visitor figure of…
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Features
UK’s specialist property portals taking on the big three
Visitors from space probably think that the UK has just three property portals – and that those portals have taken the place of estate agents. Not true...
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Latest property news
Agent makes lone stand against landlords who advertise direct on property portals
Newcastle-under-Lyme letting agent Rocket Homes Rentals has locked horns with the two largest property portals over listings by two local student lettings companies. It says they are advertising on the big portals even thought they are landlords who only market their own properties. Hybrid agent/landlords like these are springing up across the UK at the moment to enable a single landlord, or group of landlords, to bypass letting agents entirely and advertise their properties to rent directly on the large portals. Rockett Home Rentals, which has a single branch in Newcastle-under-Lyme but covers Crewe, Stafford and Stoke on Trent and has been in business since 2003, says its two rivals are advertising on Rightmove and Zoopla. “I’ve talked to both portals and no matter how they want to dress this up, they seem happy to let these ‘agents’ list because they have paid money and that’s it, regardless of how their business works,” says director Bill Rockett (pictured, below) “The only properties they have are the ones they own – they’re not an agent for anyone and they don’t service any customers except themselves. “It worries me that in the small area around my business I’ve seen ‘agents’ like this…
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Features
Has print marketing turned its last page?
With the strong presence of the property portals it’s becoming increasingly rare for house hunters to find their home via a newspaper advert, but, says Joanne Christie, print is far from dead.
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Latest property news
New portal Yellf claims its leads will be better quality
You wouldn’t think there was much room for another property portal in the UK or anyone left with the money and courage to muscle in on the existing three. Despite this, a City-based company is launching Yellf which is to charge agents between £159.99 and £279.99 a month and says it has already begun contacting branches to sell packages. Yellf, which is short for Yellow Fish Property, hasn’t gone live yet but says it will be more than just a medium for listing properties offering a free ‘one-stop-shop’ to those buying or renting a home including agent reviews, price indices, market statistics, crime data and travel information. According to Companies House, Yellf was registered in November although it has been active on Twitter since September last year. Yellf also says its ‘information’ approach will deliver more serious qualified leads to agents than other portals because buyers and tenants will be less likely to be window shoppers, which in turn will “save agents time and money”, says founder and sole director Edwin Bouhene, 48. Agents will also receive an ‘unrivalled support package’ and be offered a paid-for tailored digital service that will include daily Facebook and Twitter content for agents. “The management team…
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Features
The battle for North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire has become a battleground for dominance among the portals, says Nigel Lewis.
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Marketing
OnTheMarket targets 7,500 members
OnTheMarket is now targeting 7,500 members as part of its efforts to replace Zoopla as the number two property portal after gaining the support of 6,000 UK estate and letting agent offices across the country. The level of support, which consists of contracted members and agents who have signed a ‘Letter of Intent’ to join OTM when total support reaches 7,500 offices, was achieved less than 10 months after the launch of the portal in January 2015. The growth in members, in addition to website traffic which OTM says reached a record high of 5.7 million visits in October, ensures that the portal will enter 2016 in good shape, according to Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OTM. He said, “We will be entering 2016 in a strong position – supported by another heavyweight national marketing campaign – and intent on overtaking ZPG in terms of available UK residential listings. “From that point, we believe that agent momentum will snowball and we will focus all our energy on continuing to build a sustainably low-cost alternative to Rightmove to serve both agents and consumers better.” Mr Springett pointed out that it was nine months ago that Alex Chesterman, the CEO of…
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Marketing
OTM’s ‘one other portal’ rule stifling transactions
A well-respected figure in the estate agency sector has written an open letter in conjunction with his business partner to Ian Springett (left), CEO OnTheMarket (OTM), urging him to drop the portal’s “One Other Portal” rule. OTM is attempting to break the so-called duopoly held by Rightmove and Zoopla with its ‘one other portal’ rule preventing their member agents from advertising on both Rightmove and Zoopla, with a view to saving agents money. The duopoly of the current two biggest portals means that prices of listing on the two portals have increased significantly in recent years, but to prevent further growth, OTM launched earlier this year with a view to saving agents money overtime. But with traffic to OTM failing to attract anywhere near the level of website traffic being generated by Rightmove and Zoopla, the number of leads being generated for some agents is falling, contributing to the current decline in transaction volumes in the UK, according to estate agency Consultant and Trainer, Richard Rawlings (right) and his business partner Bradley Payne. In an open letter to OTM’s CEO, one behalf of “the approx. 1,000 agency branches we serve, as well as the wider industry”, Rawlings and his business…
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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
Property portal supremacy
Marc Da Silva asks, “which portal is winning the battle for agents?”
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