A new – and free – property listing platform is getting set to launch. It uses a web crawler and believes that it will not fall foul of OnTheMarket’s “one other portal” rule.
Proptyle is already visible on the net, in beta mode and claims that it already is well ahead of Zoopla in terms of listing, and almost at a par with Rightmove. Agents may not know that their properties are on the platform.
Proptyle founders are brothers Yash and Tej Patel, who work in the City in banking and telecommunications respectively. They believe their offering as a search engine is unique, describing proptyle as a hybrid property search engine, which works like Google but displays as a portal.
The listings are basically links to agents’ own websites which the brothers say means that ghost and stale properties are technically non-existent on their site, since the inventory displayed on proptyle is always in sync with the market reality.
The founder say that their offering is not like search engine Home, which also scrapes agents’ site.
They say that Home does not direct consumers to agents’ websites and does not show properties in real time – ie, because they have only just been added.
They also say that proptyle can handle next generation features, which they claim are not supported or possible through Rightmove.
These include interactive property tours, interactive chats with agents, and virtual tours.
The proptyle founders say: “It would be very hard to cover all video formats via RM feeds for example and the feed size would grow dramatically. Proptyle already does all this via direct lead generation approach. With proptyle the consumer directly connects with the property’s agent.”
It is asking agents that would actively like to be listed for their website urls, with the rest being handled by its web crawler.
Normal listings are free, with charges made for optional additional services, such as featured listings and listing click statistics.
The Patels told EYE: “In terms of the available properties on proptyle we are almost at par with Rightmove and miles ahead of Zoopla.
“However, in terms of the area coverage across the UK we are already ahead than Rightmove since Rightmove doesn’t display properties in regions such as Northern Ireland, parts of Scotland and Wales, Isle of Man, etc, whereas we do.
“Even in some parts of London and Greater London we display more properties than Rightmove because of sheer volume of estate agents present in those areas.”
The brothers say that their platform will move out of beta mode and go fully live shortly.
Currently, the search looks iffy: only search via postcode and address is supported on the platform, which allows search by street and postcode. Searching by towns is not supported yet but will be added in a few days.
EYE could not search by our own address, but we did search by “Basingstoke”.
At the moment, because it is a town, we could not do this. We searched the option “Basingstoke Road” – which is actually a street in Reading, where yesterday we found 44 properties within a one-mile radius listed by agents including Prospect, Chancellors, Romans, Davis Tate, Parkers, hatched and Winkworth.
The founders plan to market proptyle to consumers via various channels, mainly online, and through agents themselves.
They also admit they may need funding to ramp up their marketing efforts, and that they are currently exploring options.
However, according to independent observer Henry Pryor, the soon-to-be launch is raising questions as to whether a huge marketing spend is necessary any more, or whether it is enough simply to get it “out there”.
Comments (28)
Poor website in my opinion. Tried to search for our local town – no results. Fail. Searched a local postcode…got some results. Nice to see that they’ve scraped our property data and are hotlinking our images straight from our company website!
Scraping sites are for amateurs. Wonder how much they spent on this? Next generation my ****!
Edgar, a “techie”
I think it is a really good concept and there is a market for this out there as its unique. people should give it a chance beforehand as the website is looking really good although it is still a working progress. Good luck to you both.
… and so the next mate/relative is rolled out to give a scarily familiar glowing endorsement of the product.
Laughable.
The thing to note is how easily, comprehensively and openly Agents’ data is being scraped from the main portals.
The data being stolen doesn’t belong to Rightmove or Zoopla it is copyright their paying customers. The only thing preventing a far more advanced system than the one on show here being switched on is the belief that data theft, even if it is both cheap and easy to do is wrong.
Always makes me laugh when you see new posters coming out in support of an idea / service / product that gets a news story.
As with most i bet they never post again!
We can only but hope… ;o)
I see Haart and Savill’s on a local search
http://proptyle.co.uk/?s=tn240rr&sale=1&resi=1
Is Paul Smith Haart and Savill’s AM directors allowing other portals to break their stupid one other portal rule now?
Oh, dear, Mr Mealham
You already know for a fact that companies such as those you care to mention refuse to subscribe to tuppenny ha’penny tinpot websites…
…so the question is completely unnecessary. Other than for your own blatant agenda purposes, that is.
Hasn’t worked. The opposite, in effect.
Not so much scoring points as booting in yet another own goal, I would suggest.
If if goes live many agents may request their listings taken down. The Patel’s should gain agent permission first. Remember Houser upsetting agents by taking and not asking.
What’s the commercials end goal. Agents listing for free must be to fund leads to somewhere or somewhere?
Great concept. I belive agents will benifit massive with end user going directly on there websites. I dont remember anyone has done this kind of concept, creating a property search engine.
Well done and good luck.
I just clicked “like” instead of clicking reply.
More fool me !
Dear ThePropGuy, what utter, utter cobblers mate !
You are either a patel or the other one, you cant say things like Great concept, it is no concept at all, it does nothing new or innovative or anything.
Sorry don’t want to hurt your feelings, just don’t like dumb comments like “great concept” when it isn’t
They need to fire the guy who wrote the FAQ on their website. Bunch of marketing dribble.
They clearly know nothing about the industry if they think an agent’s stock is more up to date on their own website than the portals…
Always makes me cringe when I see free for agents. That means they have to make the bucks off the backs of the estate agents business/hard work to make a profit. H’mm there used to be a time when you had to earn your own revenue but the internet has created an environment where business protection and copyright is going out the window. It used to be they would have had to pay you to use your “business” for their own gain. The internet really is the wild west.
Concept is great! Alot of the comments are focusing mainly on the “scraping” aspect – I think you have to look above and beyod that!
You don’t really know what budget they have behind them/resources etc
Checked the site and it looks great for saying it is only in Beta Mode! Good luck to them both!
I’m sorry, Mr Patel – in order to provoke any kind of response that will in any way, shape or form help your project to do anything other than crash and burn with the others before it, you’re going to have to massively expand on the above comment to ‘engage your audience’ – and not simply massage your own egos….
Indeed PeeBee……………Anyone remember what happened to the guy who started something like this a few years back, apparently was a game changer…. His launch was cheaply put together with tacky banners over a hired rooms table… Im guessing his money has gone the way these guys will do.?
It’s not my area, and I’m just being pedantic (it’s in my nature). But “the eye” does like a needless plug of agents doesn’t it?
“listed by agents including Prospect, Chancellors, Romans, Davis Tate, Parkers, hatched and Winkworth”
Money for nothing equals nothing for no money.
As anyone can tell you it’s not the amount of stuff you have on your website be it property or popcorn for that matter it comes down to how many unique and repeat visitors you generate who in turn become leads.
Yet another misguided attempt to grab a share of a very sophisticated and mature on line business.
I like it…
It’s still a very young business. Very young indeed. I’d like to see if it can find a niche for itself in the coming months.
Oh, I can see there’s a ‘niche’ for it, alright…
…right in there with the multitude of others that have gone before it and failed miserably.
Bang on the money PP
Only two ways a portal can rival RM or even Z
Hundreds of millions for advertising.
Or
A completely revolutionary feature the agents and the public can see an instant benefit.
The time has passed on just scrapping listings and hoping the market will buy into it, they are still happy to scrap tho as the as they probably sell the data.
You need to remove that hideous google adsense advert on the homepage for starters, makes it look cheap.
What a waste of time. I don’t really see the point in this. Lots of agents speak negativly about Rightmove and Zoopla, they’re amazing, smart platforms and the public love them! Let’s just stick with that at when an innovative platform turns up with huge amines of money to back it, that embraces a new piece of technology then I might sit up and listen. Patel’s it’s a waste of time and it’s rubbish.
Bit harsh, nextchapter. Can we not see where it goes first? Could evolve into a game-changer in its own way, somewhere down the line at least. And if you’re a cynic, you at least get to see it fail. Everyone wins by holding their tongues for a few moments in its lifetime.
Rightmove operates as a monopoly and as a result its high fees are a joke for agents outside of the south east. Anything that breaks RM arrogance and its grip on agents is welcome and to be encouraged.
drags properties off agents sites so no stales stuff????? where u think the stale stuff comes from at moment??
good luck though if free. We as an industry are complete muppets for paying rightmove prices.
pity onthemarket is so ****. and it is **** so dont pretend it isnt..new M>D required pronto at on the market..
someone who knows how to get a buyer to search for a house be a good start, instead of spouting that they want to remove zoopla to go after the main rival..see you in 10 years then on past performance
haha,,like the ****, i only said something that rhymes with crepe, sorry for any offence