How many online letting agents are there?
How do they operate? And what kind of threat do they pose to the high street?
According to industry pundit Rayhan Rafiq Omar, low-price online agents are “now the mainstay of DIY landlords – those who self-manage”.
He names Upad and OpenRent as the largest, in terms of listings on Rightmove and Zoopla.
He also points out that there are discrepancies between the listings, with a number of online letting agents putting the bulk of their listings on Zoopla.
For example, he says OpenRent has 1,062 listings on Zoopla but only 677 on Rightmove, while Purplebricks has 3,740 on Zoopla compared with 277 on Rightmove.
Omar, aka the Real Estate Pundit, concludes: “Online agents are filling Rightmove and Zoopla’s coffers and not truly differentiating.
“Why won’t any of these agents kill off or disrupt traditional agents? They aren’t adding value.”
Here are his rankings, updated on September 14 (Rightmove listings first, followed by Zoopla numbers in brackets):
Upad – 703 (667)
OpenRent – 677 (1,062)
Urban.co.uk – 357 (837)
Visum – 311 (222)
Purplebricks – 277 (3,740)
Easyproperty – 246 (293)
Rentify – 166 (366)
Housesimple – 129 (1,598)
Makeurmove – 126 (127)
My Online Estate Agent – 116
The Online Letting Agents – 101
Lettingaproperty.com – 97
I Am The Agent – 61
Gordon’s The Online Estate Agent – 37
Online Agent UK – 27
Igloo – 21
Tepilo – 17
House Network – 15
LoveYourPostcode – 8
Home Online UK – 7
9yds – 6
YOLA (Your Online Letting Agents) – 3
FindAHomeOnlne.co.uk – 2
Emoov – 1
The full piece is here
Comments (37)
Mis-describing the status of a properties availability or length of being on the market is an offence under Consumer Protection Regulations Act and, a breach of ASA and TPOmb rules. Thus, portal juggling and churning* are both illegal and unlawful. It should also be said that these same agents are almost certainly in breach of contract if they claim they will be marketing clients homes on all of the portals (the reasonable implication being all of them, all of the time)
At some point, the ASA, trading standards, the NAEA and RICS etc, must start to actively police this. Not to do so encourages these cowboys to continue to flout the law and mislead consumers. It is no longer acceptable to sit back and wait for the public to complain.
*Churning is where agents take a property off the market from on portal for a few days only to re-list it as ‘new-in’. To find out which agents are guilty in your area, run a comparables report in Rightmove for a single postcode for the past two years and spot all of the properties where this has happened (excluding price changes)
WELL SAID, Chris!
How’s about we start up a complaints and redress scheme – one that ACTUALLY WORKS?
I’ll sponsor the website.. just let me know..
:knowing, wry smile: Not saying a word!
knowing me knowing you too, jup 🙂
Just ‘done a Burgess’ (could catch on…) and scoured Z & RM. Came across this wonderful example of what Mr Burgess has described – and an even earlier date!
http://www.zoopla.co.uk/to-rent/details/37297388#lMqCrAxje5OuHrqz.97
Good thing of course with Z when someone is trying to fudge the figures is that the ‘Listing History’ is comprehensive – had this been a change to a listing it would have had dates of changes – but no – “listed” on 17 September is what it states.
You couldn’t make it up. Oh – hang on – someone HAS…
Saw it! I did wonder if it was just me getting it wrong but its not is it!
“First listed£689 pcm on 17th Sep 2015”
then “Triple room in a semi-detached house is available from seventh July.”
I’d say easyproperty have just been caught red-handed!
To back up my theory, here are two lines from two properties easyproperty added yesterday that went straight on as let agreed
unfurnished available for rent starting on 10th August.
This lovely bungalow is available from 20th July
This clearly alludes to the fact they were probably first added prior to the dates (above), sop the chances they were added and let yesterday are slim, right..?
I’ve been following Easyproperty’s numbers – primarily because they have valued themselves sooo highly (66m), that I’ve wanted to see for myself whether their self valuation reflects in ANY way the level of business they’re doing – and it doesn’t..
I noticed this week their listing numbers dropped dramatically so they’ve let (and lost) more instructions, they haven’t been taking on at the same rate..then yesterday (18th Sept), I noticed they had listed (added today) a dozen or more (let by) properties, giving the impression they had the taken on – and let them all on the same day. In reality we know that’s unlikely and their listed numbers are so low that they are obviously doing anything they can to give the impression of having more than they have.. Its going to be showdown time at the boardroom soon for property wizard Rob Ellice.. me thinks he lost his magic wand some time ago…
Mr Burgess – well spotted!
You may have read a comment I made above in relation to this apparent practice which has been baptised #portaljuggling – basically because there’s no better name for it – and is the subject of quite a discussion on Twitter.
You should join in – vent your spleen so as to speak – and raise awareness of such practice.
Who knows – one day the powers that be might even wake up to it!
Hope to see you there…
Jeez, agents making money online are proxies for wish fulfilment. Its pretty aspirational. Then you got Russ.
You have to figure that the narrative being formed of online vs high street is pernicious but dude, just one listing! Whatever’s the over under on that 20 MIL valuation I’d be mad, like file a complaint mad.
Just think what YOU’RE ‘worth’, TL, based on whatever formula seems to be used these days to value stuff – maybe you can’t work out what all those ‘0s’ would translate to!
More’s the point – imagine if we had to use such exotic and, dare I say ‘inventive’, formulae when we go out on Appraisals… ;o)
I hear you dude but with that much money I’m on a spree. Killing or whiskey I’ll let you decide.
I’ve been following Easyproperty’s numbers – primarily because they have valued themselves sooo highly (66m), that I’ve wanted to see for myself whether their self valuation reflects in ANY way the level of business they’re doing – and it doesn’t..
I noticed this week their listing numbers dropped dramatically so they’ve let (and lost) more instructions, they haven’t been taking on at the same rate..then yesterday (18th Sept), I noticed they had listed (added today) a dozen or more (let by) properties, giving the impression they had the taken on – and let them all on the same day. In reality we know that’s unlikely and their listed numbers are so low that they are obviously doing anything they can to give the impression of having more than they have.. Its going to be showdown time at the boardroom soon for property wizard Rob Ellice.. me thinks he lost his magic wand some time ago…
I’m just a tad confused…
The article relates to LETTINGS – yes?
Yet the ‘Z’ figures quoted by the “industry pundit” for PB relate to SALES properties.
Nothing like fudging previously fudged statistics for a bit of added ‘WOW’ factor to an “I haven’t had any column inches in a while” press release…
Not like me to agree with Mr Ackroyd – and I assure you it won’t be happening often – but this stuff is nonsense.
These figures are nonsense. On reading this you would assume that Purple Bricks advertise on Zoopla in preference to Rightmove – But if you check Rightmove they are listed on both.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/estate-agents/agent/Purplebrickscom/National-95980.html#ram_current_properties*_includeSSTC=on&auction=false&includeSSTC=true&locationIdentifier=BRANCH%5E95980&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=10&previousSearchLocation=Purplebricks.com%2C+National&searchType=SALE&useLocationIdentifier=false
Regulation ‘Acts’ have historically been called the ‘XYZ Estate Agents Act’ or the ‘So and So Regulations for Letting Agents’ etc For those that follow legislation changes, the titles of Estate and Letting Agents has started to remove and Legislation is becoming more about the ‘process’ rather than the ‘job title’
So, the light at the end of the tunnel will be to not worry about budget marketing and cheap agreements. The worry for budget operatives is that many today are non compliant in some areas of trade. They could be the ones who find things hard going later.
Its now easy to get a property on rightmove or zoopla for peanuts. Its easy to buy an AT or section 21 for a few pounds. So for some it could be the end of agency as we know it.
But there’s two key points:
1. The fat lady’s not singing just yet. ……..
2. There’s a big juggernaut out there round the corner that budget marketers and poor grade agents are not seeing. It’s called LEGISLATION and REGULATION.
So for landlords who DIY and budget marketers, they don’t understand whats going to hit them in the next 12-24 months.
The same as marketing and tomorrows out of date cheap internet agreements are being offered. Is the same way regulators will capture rogue and unlawful operatives.
So for all the DIY cheapies, start buying insurance as bad advice and out of date agreements, notices and ignorance could cost many budget boys £1,000’s in fines in the not too distant future.
Professional advice and latest compliance to serve consumers and landlords not wanting the hassles will be the new place to be.
Wales is already on the road of Legislation and Regulation, with ALL Landlords and Agents needing to Register – although the start date has not yet been announced. Landlords using a fully managed service will see little change, but DIY Landlords will have to do training. We sent a letter to to Find Only Landlords and have had a lot of positive feedback with many saying that they will probably want a managed service in the future – to save the hassle.
A couple of Part Time Letting Agencies have also decided to retire before the new legislation comes in, so more work for ARLA professional agencies.
Then there’s the future. greater professionalism. … Good luck singing agent for getting in early. From the part timers packing up – you can see legislation could be V good for good agents and bad news for cowboys, many DIY’ers and budget boys
I, personally, think there is a place in the market for both types of letting agent and I don’t see them taking over the market. With regulation of the sector becoming tougher and set to become even more tough in years to come I genuinely believe that more and more informed landlords will choose to use a traditional High Street agent. With more red tape it will cause DIY landlords more work and those that DIY to save money may not do so in the long run of they are not fully conversant with legislation as there will be plenty of opportunity to trip themselves up… This is where they will feel someone who they can sit down and have a cups with and talk it over with, resolve (where possible) the problem, or support them through what might be a turbulent time that finds them handing over to an agent in the future is a very valuable asset!
If I am allowed to comment, (some people think I shouldn’t be allowed to)
3500 properties out of 4,360,000 is 0.08% of the letting industry. Given that about 10% of the stock is switching at any one time
3500:436,000 is 0.8%, round it up if you like…. 1%!
The question does not even need asking!
I think the interesting bit of all this is how a £20 million company (snigger but feel embarrassed for them and the investors) has 1 property.
Another thing most people won’t have noticed is how the two firms so heavily prompted in print and on-line by the mighty Telegraph with some 700+ articles sponsorships & mentions (excluding the repeated tweets and re-tweets) have a grand total of 4! properties between them.
If this is a threat I have the confidence and communication skills of Steve Jobs, I have neither!
Great attempt at trying to work out market share.
Unfortunately listings dont don’t ever tally to reality.
For example, many many many properties are let long before an agent thinks of putting them on the portals (typically high street agents are able to do this, rather than online).
And to be fair to the ‘heavily promoted’ online agencies, their business is about sales, rather than lettings. I just couldn’t help but leave them in to embarrass them. It beggars belief that all that money spent on branding doesn’t lead to more lettings listings.
I’m glad you did, if an agency with 1 property is worth £20,000,000 a typical agency (one that is making a profit not predicting a profit in 3 years time) with say 200 properties on the books is worth £4 billion, happy days!
Hope my girlfreind doesnt find out I’m a billionaire so I’ll gladly sell for £500 million but not a penny less. Any takers?
Are you able to send a photo of your girlfriend please? This sounds like a winners all round negotiation.
getting to the nub as always Robert…. zero flim flam…. that is why I appreciate your posts!
Thank you GPL, I appreciate your comment!
As customer values change so too does the make up of the high street and estate agency and property letting are not immune to these changes. To answer the question, the threat today is negligible but will become much bigger in years to come. In the same way some people still buy newspapers in 20 years time some people will still want to shelter from the rain in a high street agent they just won’t have as many places to choose from 🙂
What an astute observation.
Could the difference be that rm has quality data management and removes them automatically after a period of ‘let agreed’, not sure if zpg does this. Which means the number on zoopla shows what they have had since the beginning. It seems strange that there is a difference… Unless it’s fees.
No, Rightmove has no interest in ‘cleaning up’ stale listings.
Rightmove is more strict about agents paying more, if they have more listings. So it’s easier for agents to leave stale listings on Zoopla to make themselves look bigger.
Actually, that’s not correct. I had a ‘data cleansing’ email from RM this morning – they have removed one of my listings because it has shown as ‘Under Offer’ for too long. It IS still ‘Under Offer’ – has been for nearly a year – and I can’t wait to send my Account on exchange – it just hasn’t happened yet!
Speaking from experience – they DO ‘clean up’.
Do you not think a year is too long? Only a minority of cases take longer to go through most agents can get their sales through in 2-3 months on average.
Thing is, I never remove anything from RM ,even when completed,….just wait for RM to remove. Many agents even then re list as sstc for another year. I complained bitterly about agents doing this a year or so ago and when RM said they weren’t prepared to do anything about it I started to do it also. The other thing is Tepilo and e moov and PB slap under offer or sold on properties that we sell! RM didn’t want to know. For an online company that really does help online agents look like they are selling more than they actually are.
As do most of mine, wilko – but as you know only too well there’s always the exception to the rule and the one I’m on about is mine!
There’s an ongoing discussion on Tw@tter regarding #portaljuggling (credit: Robert May) – you might want to have a look in at it… ;o)
It took me less than 10 seconds to search for purple bricks on both sites
Righmove -sales 1000plus ,rental 422
zoopla – sales 3854 , rental 254
Do I now take over the position of industry pundit as Im able to use the internet to get correct figures ? Is there a wage involved
Such wit. Such poise.
How ow about I pay you to write?
You accept no win, no fee terms?