Shares in Rightmove and Zoopla continued to fall yesterday, following the warning by broker Citigroup that the City had underestimated the impact of Agents’ Mutual, and further warned that their subscription-based models would not benefit from a rise in property advertising – but that newspapers would.
Zoopla’s shares tumbled to 228.60p, a fall of 4.67%.
Rightmove’s shares ended the day at 2179p, a drop of 3.50%, despite the continued almost daily purchase of its own shares.
Another big faller on a bad day generally for shares was Countrywide, which ended down 3.47% at 459.50p.
Comments (21)
In the spirit of having it out, I'm coming off Zoopla when I go AM and before it all kicks off I'll tell anyone right now: if you think you can win valuations off me just because you are on Zoopla and I'm not (bearing in mind I'm having a scrap with myself so far) you are a not all that good and are an idiot…….quite happy to fight with a real person when one turns up here but I will win! – Jonnie
You will, genuinely!……..Its is one of the easiest websites to use against your competitors……..vendors who are on Z become horrified when they understand how a website designed more for the "buyer" is typically NOT what they need……………….The odd property does not work so well, but 9 out of 10 times you can show them their own property with information to suggest they are crackers trying to achieve what they are…………………… or what is being suggested by us………I mean would us agents ever put an asking price on a brochure or window card of lets say £199,950 followed by "but we think its worth £175,000" I've never yet had a homeowner say this would be a good idea, so simply asking would they like me to put their property on a website which will do this…..gets the no way reply……………..anyway sorry Jonnie you know all this, so good on you!…….PS; I did a letter to some houses on with Z agents, titled "we will take your house OFF Zoopla for your benefit – call me to find out why" you send it to the houses on Z where the biggest discrepancy on Z estimated price and actual asking price is and its an easy sell when they call you….telling people what your NOT going to do can be as powerful as telling them what you are going to do.
Right, so imagine a vendor having three agents round, we have Ric and I as agents 1 & 2 who aren't on Zoopla but are offering OTM need agent 3 who is……..any takers for this job? – Jonnie
We were at a meeting of 15 leading local agents yesterday. All bar one had come off Zoopla. It looks as though the bail out is starting.
I'm sure it will vary from region to region but appears that Zoopla are going to bare the brunt of it in my area, most AM agents here will have properties off that site by 1st November.
Evening NewsBoy and Paul H – Yes, we too were at a meeting where Z seemed to be getting the overwhelming drop off vote…….but like Paul says, the outcome from the meeting I was at, seemed to suggest there is a real North / South split and both could suffer which I think will be the best thing for OTM……….. I would rather both lose a fair bit than just one of the lose most……………it will make the No. 1 spot for OTM much easier to achieve.
I tend to agree Ric, we need to see a fair amount of agents/listings/revenue come of both bit It's going to vary dependant on what part of the country your based but certainly down south it's Zoopla that will lose out the most.
I don't agree. I can't see why it should be viewed by sellers as a negative. At their launch they will have a huge number of offices from across the UK. This will be twinned with a budget the same size as Rightmove with regard to tv advertising and it will be a very easy sell to clients that their property is on a portal that will be exceptionally high profile. OTM also has the ability with the strength in numbers to offer some major control on the property stock, good for sellers, exciting for buyers and a major plus for those agents that have subscribed.
It's negative because no matter how many offices they have, they still cannot rival the traffic of the other two portals. You can have the best portal in the world with every property located on it but if it's got NO traffic then it's useless.
Building traffic (Good quality traffic) takes time and one needs a working and functional website to do it. "Coming soon" and "Under construction" pages don't work, people forget about them. Once OTM launches they then have a good 6 month battle to get their name out there and gain the quality traffic… Or did you guys think come January 1st everything would change? HAHA
"You can have the best portal in the world with every property located on it but if it's got NO traffic then it's useless" ……………..have you been drinking? What do you think drives traffic to a property portal……… seriously you're having a laugh aren't you?…………….you contradict yourself so often in these debates…….. come January OTM will have a fair few property…..buyers and owners WILL see this as the member agents will insist they take a look………and from there it will grow…………….but just one last time……. The best property portal in the world with every property on it…………with no traffic………now that is possible……..but I am guessing OTM WILL remember to make the site live!
Zoopla have told the city and all potential share holders that they plan to increase revenue by around 15% and eventually their fees will be on a par with Rightmove. I wonder if those city analysts that down played the potentially disruption caused by Agents mutual hold any financial and negligent liability for these claims.
Paul H … what benefit from 1st Jan is there to a seller to have their property moved off RM or Z and onto OTM? Bear in mind that all of these sellers will be unsold with a median unsold time of Xweeks or Xmonths?
CP – What would the loss of benefit be?
Ric – every new valuation and every existing client I have suggested it to (I did an email survey) has responded negatively. Perhaps you should ask your own clients. Our opinions don't count – theirs do.
Ric – also – if there is no benefit to the client (or the agent) to advertising on RM or Z why are we even talking about OTM? If you see no benefits why are millions of people visiting RM and Z each month?
I've had the complete opposite! It depends how you put it to them perhaps!!……………. You see, I am not on Z and having opened two offices in the past 4 years among competitors all on Z, I have still taken each office to a market leading share of stock both sold and available (Its gunna get boring me saying and reading this for some but its true Z is an easy sell against)……………however I could not argue that my clients not being on RM would be a benefit post January, but being on RM and OTM can only be more beneficial to my clients than their status with me now as they WILL gain an extra property portal fact………..and when OTM starts to dominate, I will be able to treat RM like I do Z!…………I just do not get why some agents have been brainwashed to believing it is being on RM and Z (and is the important bit) that keeps them ahead of their competitors, I prove it wrong day in and day out………..unless obviously the only thing you have in your tool box is both RM and Z then you will just sell sell sell the fact you are on both…………… time will tell…..but I would be interested to know if your survey told them a bit about how OTM could work and why it is being set up………can you put your exact survey question on here…….exactly how it was written or said…….I would be interested to know if your clients were fed enough info! or were they just asked if they would prefer 1/ OTM with one other or 2/ RM and Z………………….as the answer will always be 2……based on not enough has been sold to them………………..and your last point……..millions of people visit as they are the two websites available with most of the market to stare at………………..what was the benefit of Z before RM, when millions visited RM……………..do not get you can shift peoples attention and the agents have a pretty strong tool to do this…………………………."the stock" in case you were wondering……….the stock makes the websites…….!
CP – I should add, the first and foremost reason we are talking about OTM is simply to give some control back to the agents who want to "put up" rather than just moan about "its not fair what they charge"…….. who on PIE has ever suggested that OTM is coming because RM is rubbish or RM and Z do not show enough property and buyers cannot see property therefore vendors are not benefiting………
Falls in RM and Z shares were almost inevitable and a natural stock market reaction to a potential threat to their profits.
However, the stock market won't influence one iota whether OTM will have any major impact on RM or Z – that will solely be decided by Joe Public's reaction to OTM … IMO AM have massively underestimated what I believe will be a huge negative reaction from existing clients when they find out that as from 1st Jan their – as yet unsold – properties have been removed from RM or Z and transferred to OTM, in most cases without consultation or prior notification … The media, undoubtedly, will react to this negative response in typical 'anti-estate agent' mode and make a meal of it – especially when they realize that this is being done solely to save EA's a few hundred quid a month per branch … I can just see the likes of Stelios or James Caan being interviewed on TV and saying that online estate agents are banned from OTM thus denying Joe Public of their low cost sales service in an attempt to further line the pockets of 'greedy high street estate agents' who in fact are no longer needed … Whether you, I, or any other agent believes that hype the fact is the media and Joe Public will be a hugely receptive audience … one of the Directors of AM told me that "I don't know exactly what the outcome of AM coming into the market will be … but I do know their will be reactions that none of us have forecast". IMO one of these will be a negative media reaction which could be as damaging to High Street EA's as Gerald Ratner's 'prawn sandwich' comment.
And it will be interesting to see how much more they will as I understand a big announcement from OTM is due imminently.
Gutted for them…… poor ****** shareholders……