Zoopla
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket “diminished as a threat” says Zoopla boss
It was billed as the property website that would finally break the so-called duopoly between Rightmove and Zoopla, but OnTheMarket (OTM) is turning out to be a bit a damp squib, according to Alex Chesterman, Head of Zoopla Property Group (ZPG). Zoopla said that the number of agents on its books has increased in recent months as it posted better than expected full-year earnings. ZPG has announced a £25.4 million profit in the 12 months to September despite greater market competition from OTM which has increased its market share since launching in January, primarily at the expense of Zoopla. Zoopla had 12,702 agency partners at the end of September, compared to 16,373 a year earlier, largely as a consequence of OTM’s ‘one other portal’ rule requiring their member agents to stop advertising on either Rightmove or Zoopla with a view to winning greater market share. The rule hit Zoopla significantly harder than Rightmove, with client numbers falling sharply. But Zoopla report that they are now winning some of those customers back, with Chesterman insisting that OTM’s “threat is diminishing”. ZPG’s growth in revenue for the year ending 30th September has been supported by the group’s acquisition of home services comparison…
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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
Moving target
Andrea Kirkby reviews the financial and market positions of the major portals as the new challenger squares up to ‘the establishment.’
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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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Housing Market
House prices set to rise
Residential property prices look set to increase by an average of £60,000 over the next five years, hitting more than £320,000 in 2020, according to Cebr, the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The economic forecaster expects the average price of a home in the UK to reach £263,000 this year, up 5.6 per cent on last year, but believes that the market offers further room for growth of 3.5 per cent in 2016, with further annual price rises of in the region of 4 per cent in the four years that follow. If accurate, these price hikes will take the average price of a UK home to £321,600 during 2020 – £58,600 more than the average residential property price in 2015, according to Cebr. Nina Skero, CebrEconomist and main author of the report, believes that capital growth will be primarily fuelled by a growing “reduction in the number of properties being put on the market” as a result of low levels of housebuilding, as well as other factors such as an ageing population and the rising cost of moving up the property ladder. He commented, “The price gap between a first-time home and a larger family home has skyrocketed…
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Agencies & People
Zoopla sees ‘return to growth’
Zoopla is going from strength to strength thanks in part to its acquisition of comparison website uSwitch earlier this year, which is doing even better than expected, as well as a rise in estate agency customers. According to its latest trading update to the City, Zoopla, which earlier this year acquired online price comparison site uSwitch for £160million in a move designed to differentiate it from rivals Rightmove and OnTheMarket, has attracted a further 146 UK estate agents to its membership since July, contributing to growth in turnovers and profits. Zoopla has accepted that it lost business this year to challenger property website, OnTheMarket.com (OTM), but now insiststhat its UK agency membership is “continuing its return to growth.” Zoopla now has a total of 12,701 agency customers on its books, along with 2,706 new homes customers and 737 overseas members. Zoopla forecasts that full-year revenue will increase by a third to £107 million, with adjusted cash profit up by a fifth to £48 million. These optimistic projections are supported by the company’s decision to diversify its offering with its uSwitch acquisition, which has outperformed expectations, while its portal division was in line. There has been a positive reaction to Zoopla’s…
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Marketing
OTM continues steady growth
OnTheMarket.com (OTM) has claimed another rise in traffic levels last month. OTM said that based on its own internal data from Google Analytics, the website achieved 5.6million visits in September, including 2.7million unique visitors, up from 5.4million in August. “We believe it is only a matter of time before we overtake Zoopla as the number two portal in terms of available UK property listings and provide agents and consumers alike with a credible alternative to the current duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla,” said CEO Ian Springett (left). However, despite OTM’s growth, their level of website traffic and brand awareness at this early stage of their existence remains low compared to what Zoopla and Rightmove are achieving, and a significant number of agents are now thinking of quitting the portal as a consequence, according to a report by Barclays. The report states that nine of the 100 OTM member agents that it apparently interviewed expressed an interest in leaving the site, while a further 35 said that they will review their membership. According to its last trading update, Zoopla said that it had attracted a net rise of 213 branches in the four months to 31 July, after winning back 100…
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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
OnTheMarket openly questions Zoopla’s inventory claims
The war between OnTheMarket (OTM) and Zoopla continues this week, with Agents’ Mutual now querying the listings inventory detailed in Zoopla’s recent half-year trading statement. In its trading statement earlier this month, Zoopla Property Group stated that its listings inventory had increased by seven per cent from 828,000 on 1 April to 882,000 on 31 July. But whilst Zoopla’s UK sales and lettings search pages claimed property numbers totalling 878,288, OTM questions this rise by stating that searches conducted on the Zoopla website on 12 August returned only 675,540 properties in England, Scotland and Wales. “It is interesting to note that Zoopla has since reduced the claimed property numbers on its UK sales and lettings search pages so that the total now comes to 692,058 [as at 22 August]”, the statement from OTM noted. The figure of 692,058 for UK sales and lettings properties includes Shared Accommodation, which are provided by EasyRoomMate, and listings which are Sold Subject to Contract or Let, according to OTM. OTM suggested that Zoopla may have also been including its overseas property listings within the UK residential property figures. The statement added, “Zoopla’s Overseas Sales page now shows a figure for properties for sale which,…
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