Rightmove
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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
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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Housing Market
Property prices set to soar
Residential property prices are set to rise sharply over the next few years, as the supply of housing coming onto the market continues to fall, according to the RICS UK Residential Market Survey for May. The report shows that despite growing demand from buyers, the stock of homes per surveyor in May dropped to the lowest level since the data series started in January 1978, pushing home prices higher in the process, and at a quicker pace than in April. 34 per cent more surveyors saw prices increase in May as the supply of homes coming on to the market fell for the fourth month in succession with 19 per cent more surveyors reporting a decline in new instructions. According to RICS, the average stock of residential property per surveyor has fallen by around 12 per cent since the start of 2015. Consequently, 38 per cent more surveyors expect to see property prices increase over the next three months, supported in part by the fact that new buyer enquiries rose at the fastest rate in over a year. RICS Chief Economist Simon Rubinsohn (left) said, “There had been some hope that the removal of political uncertainty would encourage more properties…
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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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Features
On Target?
On 26th January 2015, OnTheMarket.com, a major new UK property portal, finally launched. And the reaction is...
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Latest property news
Rightmove shareholders ‘find their happy’ as profits soar
Rightmove’s shares soared by 28p to 3057 pence when its financial results for 2014 were announced. Revenues were up by 19 per cent to £167million (2013: £139.9m). Profit after tax was £96.8million, compared to 2013’s result of £97.02 million. The company reported that it made an average of £684 per month from each estate agent branch that uses the service, up 13 per cent year-on-year. In excess of 100 million people visited the Rightmove site in January, a record month for the property portal, acting as yet another indication that a growing number of house hunters are now starting their property search online. Nick McKittrick (left), Chief Executive of Rightmove, said: “The outlook for the UK online property advertising market remains positive as consumers and customers become ever more digital and the market continues to shift from traditional advertising channels.” Meanwhile, OnTheMarket (OTM) has accused Zoopla of becoming desperate as it loses ground in the online property portals war, after it issued a press release last week stating that it had received legal advice that the OTM portal and its member agents could face fines and claims for damages should some of its activities be declared to be infringing competition…
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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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Agencies & People
Sellers warned to beware of agents who list homes on OTM
Homeowners who want to sell their properties could miss out on potential buyers, as thousands of estate agents continue to stop listing homes on either Rightmove or Zoopla, as a result of OnTheMarket.com’s (OTM) ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either website, Zoopla has warned. Various agents have in recent weeks stopped listing properties with Rightmove, but it is Zoopla that has been most affected by the new OnTheMarket website, with a larger share of agents opting to cancel their subscriptions to Zoopla, in accordance with OnTheMarket.com’s strategy. Ian Springett (left), Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, in a press conference recently, said that OnTheMarket “want to keep growing” and get to the “number two position” in the portals market “as quickly as possible” and at the expense of Zoopla. But by preventing their member agents’ from listing homes on both Rightmove and Zoopla, which between them get more than 100 million hits a month, Zoopla argues that OTM is restricting consumer choice and the potential market reach of those vendors and landlords trying to find buyers or tenants for their properties. Lawrence Hall (right) of Zoopla said, “Marketing a property as widely as possible is…
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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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