property portals
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Agencies & People
Agents happy with OTM
Three months on from the launch of OnTheMarket (OTM) it has been claimed that the property portal is struggling to prove a hit with consumers, but estate agents listing properties on the website insist that they remain happy with OTM. Citing the latest data from Hitwise, the Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) claim that OTM’s website traffic has been in decline for the last few weeks, after peaking in mid-March, and that those agents that list their properties on the website are not receiving good value for money. Lawrence Hall (left) of ZPG commented, “At the end of the day, OTM is simply a marketing channel like any other and will need to ensure that its audience levels justify its fees. This is even more the case for OTM given that it has required its members to give up a huge audience. It is hard to see how agents can justify paying anything meaningful for marketing on OTM at these current traffic levels.” Ian Springett (right), Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, insisted that claims by ZPG that traffic to OTM is falling are “simply inaccurate both in terms of absolute numbers and trends”. “As flattering as it is to receive so much…
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Agencies & People
Resi Roundtable
Let Alliance invited Chester agents to meet to discuss current issues in the property market. Sheila Manchester reports.
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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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Associations & Bodies
OnTheMarket – it’s finally here!
OnTheMarket.com, the much anticipated new property portal from Agents’ Mutual, finally launched on Monday, going live with simple, fast and state-of-the-art website that adapts seamlessly to fit the screen of any device being used to view it. Designed to disrupt the portal business and break the ‘duopoloy’ held by Rightmove and Zoopla, OnTheMarket, the new industry-owned portal, which only features properties marketed by high street agents but not those with an online-only presence, is causing quite a stir in the property market, with various arguments and legal threats already being made. OnTheMarket.com will aim to challenge the duopoly for the portal top spot while giving estate agents the opportunity to regain control of their online advertising costs. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, said, “We are proud to present OnTheMarket.com as a much-needed competitor in the online property search market. We have launched an outstanding website using the latest technologies which presents properties in the best possible light for consumers and avoids unnecessary clutter.” The new portal, solely owned by the agents that list on the website, with around 4,600 estate agency offices already signed up, has had a dramatic early impact on the market with its ‘one other…
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Agencies & People
Agents’ Mutual’s ‘one other portal’ continues to have an impact
Agents’ Mutual, the collective of estate agents launching a challenger property portal, OnTheMarket.com, with a view to breaking the so-called duopoly held by Rightmove and Zoopla continues to have an effect on the market with its ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla, despite the fact that the website does not launch until Monday 26th January 2015. In the past few days Chestertons has announced that that they will no longer be listing properties with Rightmove, while CKD Galbraith will be leaving the Zoopla Property Group (ZPG). Chestertons, a founding member of Agents’ Mutual, last week announced that it will be advertising on the Zoopla and Prime Location websites from January. It is widely acknowledged amongst the industry that Zoopla and its premium PrimeLocation website has taken substantial market share and is now the strongest performer in London. This is one of the main reasons for Chestertons choosing Zoopla Property Group. Robert Bartlett (left), CEO of Chestertons and a Founding Director of Agents’ Mutual said: “We have looked carefully at data collated over the past 12 months and the numbers clearly show that our properties get more views and our clients…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket.com – countdown to launch
As more agents announce their support ahead of the great launch of OnTheMarket on Monday, it is clear that the decision making process has been complicated for many agents. The first decision to ‘go with’ OnTheMarket is relatively simple, but the requirement for agents to only list with one other major portal has clearly caused great debate. Even the founding members of the portal have been reticent about their decision. Chesterton and Savills have announced their decisions to stay with Rightmove, while Strutt & Parker will stick with Zoopla, “The process for selection was a very important decision based empirical evidence. It is undeniable that, for London, Zoopla delivers more enquiries than any other portal,” said Robert Bartlett, Chief Executive of Chestertons. Noel Flint at Knight Frank took a similar view, “Feedback from our agents across the country confirmed that Rightmove was the best choice available to us at this time, and, most importantly, the best decision for our clients. In an online poll on the Telegraph Online, readers were asked ‘Which property website would you market your home on?’ 58.69% said Rightmove, 25.9% said Zoopla and 5.08% said OnTheMarket (10.33% said none of them). The low showing for OnTheMarket…
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Features
Comment: ‘Don’t forget portals are about traffic as well as listings’
Can the online ‘disrupters’ get any traffic? Nigel Lewis shares his views.
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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
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Features
How’s the property portal war going?
It’s the most serious of online games. Andrea Kirkby reviews the state of play between the two giants and their challengers.
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