Zoopla
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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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Agencies & People
Zoopla sees mobile traffic soar
Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) reports that its mobile traffic is up by over 40 per cent so far this year compared with the corresponding period last year as more consumers than ever use the Group’s services to search for properties while on the move. ZPG claims to have delivered a record 45,000 enquiries during the first two months of the year from prospective vendors requesting appraisals to ZPG member agents, supported in part by its appraisal tool which allows homeowners to contact local agents to arrange a valuation of their home. Lawrence Hall (left) of Zoopla Property Group said, “We’re delighted to see that the various product improvements and innovations we are making continue to result in record levels of engagement with our tool sand leads and instructions for our members, reinforcing the exceptional value that we provide.” Rightmove is another portal that has enjoyed growth in web visitors, supported by higher levels of mobile traffic. Over 100 million people visited the Rightmove site in January, a record month for the property portal, helping to boost profits. The company reported that it made an average of £684 per month from each estate agent branch that uses the service, up 13…
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket could cost members ‘millions’ in legal battles, says Zoopla
Zoopla Property Group this morning ramped up its attack on OnTheMarket with a further statement that warns OTM members that they could be infringing competition law, leaving themselves open to litigation, fines and compensation costs. Zoopla Property Group’s statement said, “According to advice from top UK law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, if the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ever concluded that Agents’ Mutual Limited’s (AM) arrangements infringe competition law, not only would AM as a corporate entity be subject to fines and possible damages, but each individual member agent would also likely be liable based on their participation in AM. “The advice, provided to Zoopla Property Group plc (ZPG), states that, if the CMA at any time found an infringement of competition law, it could impose fines on each agency of up to 10% of their total annual turnover. In the case of an independent single branch firm the fines could run into the tens of thousands of pounds or for a larger firm such as Savills plc into the tens of millions of pounds. “The advice adds that any of AM’s competitors, including competing portals and excluded online agents and property developers that have suffered losses as a result…
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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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Latest property news
Zoopla’s counterpunch
Zoopla’s PR machine seemed to go into overdrive last week to deter more agents from defecting to OnTheMarket.com (OTM), as stockbroker, Panmure Gordon, cut its stance on Rightmove to sell from buy and initiated coverage on Zoopla with a sell rating. Citigroup was also downbeat on the two stocks, reducing its price targets for both. But Zoopla insisted that it was unmoved by the launch of the OTM rival site last week, which only allows its member agents to advertise on one or the other of Zoopla and Rightmove, but not both. Just three days after the launch of OTM on Monday 26th January, Zoopla issued a press release stating that OTM had launched with a ‘wimper’ by insisting that the traffic to the new property portal had been ‘anything but exciting’. Making reference to data from independent web monitoring firm Hitwise, Zoopla said that on its first day, the OTM website attracted only 23,000 visits, with many of these coming from industry participants interested in seeing the website for the first time. Since then traffic to OTM had halved daily to 12,000 visits on Tuesday and less than 6,000 visits on Wednesday. This compares to an average of 1.5…
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Latest property news
ZPG add RICS to agents’ professional affiliations
Agents that list their properties on Zoopla and its sister portals, including PrimeLocation, can now showcase their professional associations and redress schemes that they are signed up to across the Zoopla Property Group (ZPG) platform of websites, including the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), which has been addedto ZPGs recently launched feature in the past few days. Zoopla members wishing to activate this new feature can do so under their profile in ZooplaPro and activate the display of logos of their affiliations on all relevant agent directory pages, property details pages and professional reports across the ZPG platform. In an attempt to distance themselves from rogue agents and promote professionalism and better standards of service, many agents sign up to various industry bodies that offer professional guidance and self-regulation, in order to offer consumers greater confidence and protection, as well as sharpen up their own industry knowledge and specialist skills. Rob Clifford, Chief Executive of Century 21 UK, said: “Our membership [to RICS and ARLA] delivers greater confidence to clients that we are working to industry best-practice guidelines in what is still a non-regulated industry. Clients can also take a great deal of comfort from the fact they are…
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Features
The facts behind the Zoopla stockmarket float
Andrea Kirkby reports on the lead up... and the result.
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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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