OnTheMarket plc, the agent-backed company which operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, has said that as of January 31, it has listing agreements with more than 12,500 branches.
This is an increase of more than 7,000 branches in just under a year since admission to AIM in February 2018.
OTM said that its sales team “is continuing to see encouragingly high levels of agent support and conversion to signed contracts when it presents the opportunity of listing on an agent-backed portal”.
CEO Ian Springett said: “As we approach the one year mark since OnTheMarket was admitted to AIM, we are very pleased to have reached yet another significant milestone.
“We are currently running advertising campaigns across national television and radio which complement our sustained heavy investment in digital marketing.
“Alongside the rapid growth in agent branches listing, this sustained marketing activity is helping drive our visitor traffic, and the combined effect is greatly increased lead generation for our customers.
“We are confident in our ability to deliver a market-leading, agent-backed alternative to Rightmove and Zoopla, continuing to inject much-needed competition in the portals market, while delivering a superior digital user experience for property-seekers.”
Last month the Court of Appeal issued judgment in favour of OnTheMarket’s wholly-owned subsidiary Agents’ Mutual Ltd with regard to all the competition issues in its proceedings against Connells brand Gascoigne Halman. The Court unanimously and comprehensively dismissed the appeal by Gascoigne Halman against the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s judgment handed down in July 2017.
However, the residual non-competition issues relating to OnTheMarket’s claim remain to be resolved.
The growth in OnTheMarket’s agency branch base to date has been almost exclusively from offering free listings under short-term introductory trial offers, with a view to converting these to full tariff contracts when the value of its offering has been demonstrated.
Comments (29)
I take every opportunity to play down RM and promote OTM we’ve realised that landlords don’t care about portals as long as we let the property, RM have never been good for tenant leads, vendors are more likely to know RM but with our intervention most are easily convinced that OTM is better because I believe it is and they believe me. It was Agents that got RM where they are now, so it’s in our hands reverse that, I can’t understand why some remoaners bleet about OTM when they are the ones that feed the RM hand that bits them.
Isn’t it a pleasure to now see the more positive posts in favour of OTM? How things have changed with early opinions from, it will never work etc.
The success or failure of OTM lies in the hands of ‘us’ (Estate Agents up and down the Country). If we drive its success, we have flexed our influence as an industry. We will also ensure that OTM, or for that matter any other portal, never unfairly exploits our hard work again. If they did we would simply vote with our feet!!
Robert Sargent
The CEO of the Acorn Group
Exactly! Applause. Get together guys OTM is beginning to gain some traction. RM bosses have a five year plan to treble fees to agents in five years, which makes sense to cover the businesses who are already voting with their feet.
I’m watching our lead stats closley for that tipping point and then my forever standing relationship with RM will cease
OTM really need to make their peace with the agents they’ve shafted, to get it where it needs to be.
Rightmove wanted to put our monthly payment up again in April – that would have meant a 66.66% increase in the last 27 months!
We have had 28 enquiries via RM since middle of Jan and 88 enquiries from OTM for the same properties over the same period – have now given RM a month’s notice as their results do not justify the cost.
Listing agreements? The small print – number also includes bad debtors, disgruntled agents refusing to pay etc. I wonder how many 100’s of agents that is then?! My guess, not just one or two.
Wasn’t 12500 offices supposed to be the tipping point ? So can we all now bail on Rightmove – erm probably not, I fear another round or two of price hikes will be suffered before that happens.
All well and good OTM having these numbers, but how much will that drop when the free trials or incentives have all gone? What about all the disgruntled founding members that they have shafted?
I cannot see OTM leading the way and pushing RM and Z aside.
Let us see the numbers after the charges kick in. Then see what the remaining agents end up paying when they invariably increase those costs.
It will be like a mini Rightmove.
They’ve already shafted the existing members, what makes people think they won’t continue to do it?
I heard that the OTM reps get paid if they just book an appointment to go out to an office for a meeting, nice that the original gold members are covering those commissions and are still strapped in on the higher charges.
I recently heard what an OTM rep gets paid……. Lets just say no wonder they stay in the job its a VERY handsome package.
OTM is nothing like what it was intended anymore.
I do worry that Springett will one day get greedy and increase fees and become another RM. I pray I’m wrong.
The only sure thing in life is experience from what a person has done. Are OTM not doing what RM did to its founding agent members when it first started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Without a doubt, OTM have shareholders and they are just another greedy portal in the making. Human greed is not exclusive to RM unfortunately.
Many of the share holders are agencies….
Agency or not a shareholder is a shareholder with only one thing on their mind – to make money!
I hear they have several different prices models.
1. Original – several hundred pounds
2. £50 per month
3. Free
4. We pay you, bucjet load of shares and a £1 for every member of the public that registers for lettings updates.
This is in chronological order, not much left they can do to persuade further agents to join.
That 12500 will drop back down once they ask agents to pay.
Oh and those promised £5 shares are still below a quid.
All true but what if they bag the big beast- Bricks or maybe the other way around Axel Springer could certainly add something to the portal party
Can you recall how OTM came about?
Would be interesting to see how many agents are exiting Rightmove.
Terribly sad for the staff whose efforts and loyalty become irrelevant in a restructure, but to answer your question there will be quite a number of LSL branches exiting Rightmove & Zoopla for starters.
Wonder how the figures will look once agents free 18 month trial comes to an end?
If they are doubling fees within next 3 years then that works out a min of £800 a month. That is no different to RM so where are the actual benefits here? What am I missing? Particularly as even with the doubled up fees they will still not be making a profit. Just tread careful I think – at the very least don’t sign in to any long contracts
With Rightmove continuing to batter estate agents with unjustified Annual Fee Increases, OTM continues to have an “open goal” to aim at…..
Time to start publicising the exodus from Rightmove’s portal, now one of the poorest visual portals, clumsy, confused and living on its past glory.
We don’t need 3 Main Portals.
They have declared to the stock market they will be doubling fees within the next 3 years.
Double the fees on half the amount of agents = no increase in profit, good luck to them.
Since their launch I’ve only ever had 2 potential clients mention it on initial meeting. Still not with them. Still market leader.
Look in the mirror if your customers have never heard of OTM?
Don’t worry too much at the moment if a client mentioned OTM to you. Let’s get more properties on OTM first.
The key is can you leverage OTM to bring you the right type of business and negotiate better deals with the shafting portals RM and Z? (We pay £150 to Z for Sales and lettings)
We all need to get behind OTM if you don’t want to be shafted by RM and Z.
OTM is 70% owned by agents, so let’s work with the portal.
If all properties were removed from RM and Z then traffic will organically go towards OTM.
Good day, God bless!