Rightmove
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Latest property news
Property dating app for vendors and agents launched
A cupid couple in Lancashire have launched a property dating app for vendors and agents that, they claim, integrates Rightmove with the functionality of dating app Tinder. Husband and wife team Rachel and Mark Worrall’s service is called, perhaps predictably, Love2move which, the couple says, enables high street agents to offer fixed price online property sales of £895 alongside their existing sales operations. The service will enable agents to compete with their corporate competitors such as Countrywide, which in its case is currently rolling a similar dual-fee model across its network. The Worralls (pictured, above), who between them have experience in property and marketing and are both 30, say they had their lightbulb moment last year when they moved house. Mark, who works for his mother’s property marketing agency MovingWorks, and Rachel, who is a career marketeer, realised when they moved house that others in their age group were being attracted to cheaper online agents but losing out on the valuable local knowledge offered by traditional agents. Love2move is designed to fill the gap between traditional and online agents, the couple say, and is aimed at what they describe as “internet-savvy millennials looking to save money by taking control of…
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Latest property news
Big three portal traffic approaches 200 million visits a month
Both Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) and OnTheMarket have reported record traffic during January while Righmove appears to have stopped reporting its traffic entirely, although total portal traffic to the three sites is likely to be just under 200 million visits a month. But both ZPG and OnTheMarket have at least stopped throwing brickbats at each other and neither of their traffic reports mention each other, a change from recent times when both sides have questioned their competitor’s figures. ZPG says visits to its property sites Zoopla and Primelocation increased to a record of 53 million during January driven largely by mobile-based searches, which now constitute 72% of its traffic. The company also says the number of leads it generated increased by 73% year-on-year which, it says, are worth £50 million to its partner agents. “This is a great start to the year for both the business and the property market,” says Mark Goddard, MD of ZPG’s property division (pictured, left). “The numbers demonstrate that we continue to deliver incredible exposure, value and results for our partners.” OnTheMarket also had a record January, it says, receiving 11.2 million visits, an increase of 85% on the same month last year, when just…
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Latest property news
Instructions website rails against ‘too much’ Christmas
As the big retailers queue up to release their Christmas ads and spread some rather early good cheer around the nation, Folkestone-based instruction leads generator NetAnAgent.com has settled on a much harsher message. The website launched in 2012 promising to turn the world of estate agency ‘on its head’ by enabling anyone selling a property to anonymously receive agent quotes to sell their home. It also offers a similar service to landlords. But a blog published by the firm’s managing director Alex Thorpe (pictured) asks vendors to undertake some extraordinary actions during the run-up to Yuletide to bag a festive sale; by keeping their decorations austere and to the bone. He urges vendors to buy the smallest tree possible to prevent their lounge looking cramped and that Christmas decorations should be kept to a minimum because they make a room look ‘busy’. The blog also suggests NOT hanging decorations from the ceiling or putting them on tables. Also, it says that decorations should be in keeping with the property’s style and that for example a country house should have traditional tinsel and baubles while contemporary homes should not. But NetAnAgent is not alone in its call for property sales to triumph over…
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Latest property news
22% of public recognise OnTheMarket, says Zoopla research
The marketing mountain that OnTheMarket must climb to catch up its two main rivals has been revealed today after Zoopla published its latest brand awareness figures. Parent group ZPG paid market research firm Harris Interactive to quiz 1,100 people about which of the three main portals – OnTheMarket, Zoopla and Rightmove – they recognised. It found that 22% recognised OnTheMarket, an increase of 1% compared to May this year, while 90% recognised Zoopla and 83% Rightmove. The responses from the research were prompted – meaning the people surveyed were shown the portals’ logos and then asked if they recognised them – but Zoopla in addition asked them to recall the main portal brands unprompted. Zoopla says this research revealed that 47% of respondents recalled its name while 39% remembered Rightmove and 3% recalled OnTheMarket. The fruits of Zoopla’s ‘always on’ promotional activity is clearly bearing fruit. In recent years it has often outspent Rightmove on TV and, for a time, had a virtual monopoly on London’s black cab advertising. Also, in July this year it wrapped an entire fleet of London buses in purple. Gareth Helm, Group Chief Marketing Officer for ZPG (pictured), says: “Our ongoing investment in brand resulting in consumers…
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Latest property news
Zoopla’s new offices vs the Rightmove lair
Zoopla and Rightmove are clearly not short of cash. The two portal giants last year posted profits between them totalling £169 million and some of it has made its way into their office environments. Both companies are competing for the best staff of course and, following the launch of Zoopla’s new offices on London’s South Bank, it appears the purple one is making a bid to win this workspace war. So let’s compare the two. What are the common themes that upmarket offices should include these days. Perhaps your branch could follow suit? Rightmove on the left, Zoopla on the right. Enable staff to be watched while they’re brainstorming Remind people where they’re working, with BIG LOGOS Attract staff who like gardening Give it a theme, like farming or libraries, or something
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Latest property news
Rightmove data indicates a skewed market with winners and losers
Price of property coming to market falls by 1.2% (-£3,602), – exactly the same as the 1.2% average drop over the last six years.
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket visits rise as Zoopla goes on the buses
Eight million visits recorded in June – an increase of 33 per cent since January, says CEO Ian Springett.
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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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Latest property news
Interest in buy-to-let could plummet
Interest in new purchases from buy-to-let investors dropped 27 per cent in March compared to the same month last year as April 1st tax change starts to bite, according to Rightmove. The fall reverses the upward trend between December and February which brought a 24 per cent year-on-year increase in buy-to-let enquiries, indicating a potential slowdown in new investor purchases at least in the short-term. Demand from home-hunters is at an all-time high with a record number of Q1 enquiries, so the pause from investors could give some first-time buyers more of an opportunity to make a move. Some buy-to-let investors took a break from looking for new properties in March as the new tax changes deadline loomed, the new data from Rightmove reveals. Whilst Rightmove recorded its busiest ever Q1 for enquiries to estate agents, the intentions of buyers shifted in March, with the number of people saying they were planning to buy a property to rent out dropping by 27 per cent compared to the same month last year. This contrasts with the increase in interest seen from investors between December and February (+24 per cent year-on-year) as they tried to make last minute purchases before April’s additional…
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Marketing
Rightmove grows in spite of OTM
Rightmove continues to hold a dominant position in the online property search market after increasing its market share to 77 per cent, up from 74 per cent a year ago, in spite of fresh competition from the arrival of OnTheMarket.com at the start of 2015. Recognising the fact that its website remains a must-see destination for buyers and renters, the number of agents listing on Rightmove rose by two per cent year-on-year to 19,752 over the year to the end of December. The rise in the volume of agents listing on the portal helped boost Rightmove’s revenue by 15 per cent to £192.1 million in 2015, while pre-tax profit was up 12 per cent to £137.1 million. In total, Rightmove attracted 1.3 billion visits to its website in 2015, up 18 per cent compared to a year earlier. Rightmove’s underlying operating margin also increased from 74.6 per cent a year ago to 75.1 per cent. This comes as a blow to its competitors, especially Agents’ Mutual, which had hoped to break Rightmove’s stronghold on the market with the launch of OnTheMarket. Zoopla announced last week that it also increased its agent members by one per cent to 12,841, indicating that…
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