ZPG
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket founding agency Douglas & Gordon signs up with ZPG
Douglas & Gordon, one of the most vocal founding members of OnTheMarket.com, has returned to ZPG on an unspecified but likely five-year deal. The 18-branch agency, which is one of London’s better-known agency brands, has signed up with ZPG after OnTheMarket dropped its one other portal rule ahead of the portal’s recent stock market flotation although it “remains a strong supporter and investor in OnTheMarket and has recently signed a new five-year listing agreement with us,” an OTM spokesperson told The Negotiatotor. Douglas & Gordon continues to list its properties on Rightmove as well, suggesting a new trend in the industry following the OTM share launch; that agents with generous marketing budgets will now choose to list with all three portals. Douglas & Gordon was one of several high profile agents who founded OnTheMarket in 2015 including Savills, Strutt & Parker, Knight Frank, Chestertons and Glentree Estates following two years of behind-the-scenes discussions. James Evans (pictured, left), Douglas & Gordon’s current CEO, says, “We are delighted to be marketing all of our property listings with ZPG again. “ZPG have historically served our business very well and have considerably developed their platform over the past few years in terms of the…
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Latest property news
Huge difference in traffic to three main property portals revealed by latest ZPG results
ZPG has revealed how much traffic it drives to its various property portals and, the latest figures show, they were visited 68 million times during January, trailing Rightmove by 52 million visits on average but well ahead of OnTheMarket’s 14 million. ZPG’s figures includes 58 million visits to its three property portals; Zoopla, PrimeLocation and SmartNewHomes, while the remaining ten million visits were to its other websites such as uSwitch and the recently-acquired Money. ZPG also says its property websites enjoyed a 10% year-on-year uplift in traffic and, as evidenced by the sea of faces staring at smartphones in Britain’s streets and train carriages, that 60% of its portal traffic now comes via mobile devices. Property portals Visits to its comparison website uSwtich increased by 7% year-on-year, the company says. “We’ve had a great start to the year with a record of over two million visits per day to our websites in January,” says ZPG CEO Alex Chesterman (pictured, left). “These figures demonstrate that consumers are highly engaged with the services we provide and that we continue to deliver incredible exposure, value and results for our partners.” These latest ZPG figures would suggest that Rightmove’s average monthly visitor figure of…
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Latest property news
First property, now petrol for serial investor and Zoopla founder Alex Chesterman
Zoopla founder and ZPG CEO Alex Chesterman (pictured, right) has been revealed as a key investor in an unusual, if not bizarre, new business start-up, which is his 12th to date. Zebra Fuels offers vehicle owners a new service that enables their car, van, lorry or bus to be filled up while they are parked up. Founders Reda Bennis and Romain Saint Guilhem (pictured, LtoR, below) have raised $2.5 million from several new investors including Brent Hoberman, founder of Lastminute.com, and Saul Klein, a co-founder founder of Lovefilm with Alex Chesterman. The duo say they hope to make petrol stations “obsolete”. After signing up to the Zebra Fuel app, customers then pick a time and date to have their car filled up and leave their vehicle parked at a specified location with its fuel cap open. The company, which currently only operates in central London and offers just diesel, is hoping to use the extra cash to expand to a London-wide service and offer both petrol deliveries and electric car charging. “Our goal is to replace the petrol station and in doing so make filling up your car faster, cheaper, less harmful to the environment, and hassle-free,” Reda Bennis told…
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Latest property news
ZPG’s Alex Chesterman awarded ‘golden handcuffs’ worth £3.1m
ZPG CEO Alex Chesterman has been given a set of golden handcuffs worth £3.12 million by the company’s remuneration committee. The share options, in which stock in the company is essentially given away free under ZPG’s Nil Cost Option plan for senior employees, can then be cashed-in at a later date. Alex can sell the shares based on a two-tiered set of rules. Half the shares can be sold when a pre-set level of shareholder return is reached, while the other half will be handed over or vested based on time limits. He will get the first tranche of shares at the end of September 2018 and the rest on the same date the following year. Alex is likely to get his shares, given the company’s past performance. In November last year ZPG revealed that it revenue increased by 24% to £244.5 million compared to the 12 months before, and that its share dividend payments had increased by 10%. He has cashed in shares in the past and takes home approximately £1 million a year, helping fund his well-known love of fast sports cars, and the recent purchase of a £6.6m holiday home in the US on Palm Beach in…
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Latest property news
ZPG refinances its debt following recent business buying spree
Zoopla parent company ZPG has revealed that it is to restructure its debt by raising £200 million through a bond or ‘senior notes’ issue. ZPG says the bonds will become due for repayment in five years’ time and will help it refinance its debt by securing more “attractive interest rates” until 2023. This gives it a further three years of breathing space – its existing debt, which is part of a £325 million facility, is due for repayment in 2020. In ZPG’s most recent financial report for 2017, the company says it spent £97.5 million repaying debt, up from £52.5 million during 2016. The bond issue, which will not be public and will be offered to investors through different financial channels, follows a significant spending spree by the company which has seen it acquire several businesses. Expensive acquisitions This has included most recently – and expensively – the acquisition of financial products website Money for £80m and Dutch property data firm Calcasa for £26.5 million. Within its latest results published late last year, ZPG revealed that it had a net debt (borrowings minus cash in the bank) of £191.5 million, up from £146.5 million in 2016, although its total borrowings…
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Features
The Negotiator Conference & Expo 17
It was the biggest agency networking day of the year, attended by over 500 property professionals, Iain Duncan Smith and hosted by Radio 4’s Justin Webb.
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Supplier advice
How Google’s mobile first index will affect your business
Google is changing the way it ranks your website – in favour of mobile phones, rather than desktop. Andrew Clack of TechnicWeb explains Google's 'mobile first'.
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Features
Was it all purple? Who were the 2017 property industry winners and losers?
Overall the London Stock Exchange has risen by approximately 7% over the past 12 months although it featured some dramatic drops during February, May and September as Brexit has taken its toll. These have been mirrored within the property industry as both Brexit but also several much reviled government initiatives including higher Stamp Duty and the fees ban, have been announced. And the ten property sales and letting companies that list on the two main stock markets in London – the LSE and AIM – have been part of this story. Here’s how they’ve fared. Share prices Purplebricks – up by 152% After a stunning start to the year which saw its share price rise from £1.50 to £5.13 by August, a recent BBC investigation, several ASA reprimands and problems with review sites, investors have cooled their ardour for its stock, which finishes the year at £3.78p – but still 152% up on January. Savills – up by 41% While everyone’s been talking about Purplebricks, Savills share price has been skyrocketing without too many people noticing, up from £6.88 in January to £9.71 today – an increase of 41%, helped mainly by its global exposure to both booming commercial and…
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Supplier advice
How can agents adapt to today’s changing property market?
Mark Goddard of ZPG explains how you can future proof your business by developing referral income streams, through services easily integrated into your software.
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Latest property news
OnTheMarket takes legal action to prevent agency’s return to ZPG
OnTheMarket has taken legal action against one of its departing agents just hours after it had announced a return to ZPG’s portals. West-Sussex 15-branch agency Henry Adams had announced it was to leave OnTheMarket and rejoin Zoopla, its Chief Executive Philip Jordan (pictured, below) saying he was “very pleased to be back with ZPG”. The agency is based in Chichester but has branches in other parts of West Sussex as well as in Surrey and Hampshire. The corks were also flying at ZPG’s headquarters in London as Mark Goddard, ZPG’s Managing Director of Property Service, sounded equally ecstatic, saying he was “delighted to welcome back Henry Adams”. But the move proved too quick for OnTheMarket, which promptly issued legal proceedings preventing the move. Media coverage An OnTheMarket spokesperson said: “”We noted media coverage on 15 November 2017 that Henry Adams had signed an agreement with Zoopla to list all of its properties on its websites. “As at 16 November 2017, Henry Adams is not listing its properties on any of the ZPG websites. “The firm continues to list its properties at OnTheMarket.com in accordance with its current listing agreement and remains a valued member.” ZPG confirmed that the move by Henry Adams…
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