Zoopla Property Group has said that it is seeing record numbers of agents leaving OnTheMarket to re-join.
It said that in December, returners included Whitehornes in South Yorkshire, Coast in Scotland, Hamilton Bowyer in Yorkshire, Pritchards in Bath, and Keller Williams, Salter Rex and Haus Properties in London.
In its latest press release, Zoopla quotes Andy Robinson at Whitehornes, who said: “ZPG have been great in welcoming us back with a seamless transition.
“We have found the Zoopla team to be extremely passionate, enthusiastic and knowledgeable and the level of service and, most importantly, the quantity and quality of leads generated we have received since returning has been significantly greater than the competitor we have just left.
“We look forward to a long lasting professional relationship with ZPG.”
At the same time, Zoopla said that it delivered record levels of appraisal leads to its agent members in 2015, up 42% year-on-year.
It also said 2016 has also started positively with instruction leads generated across the ZPG platform up a further 25% on the same period last year.
Lawrence Hall at ZPG said: “Vendors and landlords are increasingly using our websites to identify and select local agents.
“Though our unique products we help our members win more business and in the last two weeks alone have delivered instruction leads worth over £10m in potential fees to our member agents.
“Any agent who is not a member of ZPG is clearly missing out on valuable instruction leads which is no doubt why we are seeing many members return and we look forward to welcoming many more back in the coming weeks and months.”
A spokesperson for OTM said: “We do not comment on contractual relations with members.”
Comments (32)
1TB… up you pop again – first sniff of a OTM/Zoopla thread and you’re banging on your keyboard like one of those million monkeys trying to emulate Shakespeare on a million typewriters.
Your ‘interest’ in the subject is becoming more than suspicious now.
The newest thread needs your support – Chesterman’s cool Mill-a-year isn’t going down too well with folks with active brains… you’ll have to jump to the defence.
If Zoopla want to win our business back then instead of reducing the fees simply stop giving a platform to sub standard online agents to advertise on ! Zoopla then may give a credible alternative to Rightmove. I support On The Market because they support me …
So Ive heard that Zoopla are offering to let agents advertise at £50 an office. That would really hack me off if I were paying them over £300 a month. So much for customer loyalty eh!
Before anyone writes in to complain the above comment is called irony!
Wasn’t this the on the other foot yesterday when the anti OTM brigade were spouting off hostility alleging OTM had been doing the same. They are nowhere to be heard when its another portal but I doubt that is a surprise to anyone.
Exactly my point Woodentop!
I find that hard to believe. Besides… compared to free for OTM!
“I’ll only change when they can match the leads I get”, “Its OTM’s fault that RM have raised their prices”, “I will only consider when everyone else has joined”, “Zoopla are my friend, they have done me a great deal:……. SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Keep paying the portals their ridiculous price hikes, continue to provide the online agents a platform and KEEP YOU HEAD FIRMLY PLACED UP YOUR ****
If we had of known how this OTM would have turned out a year on, then I think it would have been mothballed immediately.
It only got this far because it appealed to the emotions of people and generated hate. We can see what this type of rhetoric can do in politics and world affairs.
“because it appealed to the emotions of people and generated hate. We can see what this type of rhetoric can do in politics and world affairs”.
Oh so very true, you were looking in the mirror when you thought this up.
I haven’t ever heard a single positive suggestion from you.
Generated hate? Blimey Harry that’s a bit strong.
Seems to me all the vitriol has been coming people who either OTM won’t take, that can’t use OTM even if they wanted to because of their corporates ties to Zoopla or are Zoopla trolls or Russell Quirk (who just doesn’t seem to like any game unless the ball is his).
Any other Zoopla agents wouldn’t bother. After all, you’re convinced Zoopla is better that OTM (that’s fine, it’s a free country) so why do you give a monkeys about you OTM competitors? If they’re chucking their money down the toilet are you bothered? No you’re laughing your head off at their stupidity and thinking long may it continue.
As for where they are a year on, I’ll tell you where they are in our patch, on market share compared with Zoopla it’s 57% to 43% in OTM’s favour.
But you think it should have been mothballed?
You do your thing, let others do theirs.
I can speak from both side I recently worked for a very large independent in London and am not at a small franchised business in the same area OTM in my opinion did not and does not generate the same levels of business as zoopla and RM, we have been courted by OTM but they just cannot compete, and from all I see on here do as they please without the consensus of their mutual members.
we will not be changing our or portal provider any time soon its all in the numbers..
It’s not a matter of OTM can or cannot compete. It’s a matter of where agents choose to list their properties.
Clearly time of the month…
actually chaps/chapesses, it’s not all about the volume of members a website can boast it comes down to volume of page views and leads generated.
I am with Z I will go to OTM if they can match or better Z on page views (I still count unique as being fairly important but overall volumes too).
Am I being unfair with OTM? No it’s my money I don’t have an inexhaustible pot I need to have maximum value to run a successful business.
Please may I have 20 + likes and no dislikes, feeling a little emotionally fragile today.
Come on Property Paddy, if the only way you can sell properties is by waiting for leads from portals you shouldnt be in the job, or if you are, you should just be one of the online donkeys.
When are you going to realise that when you jump in and everyone else does it will work, its up to us, not them….we provide their business.
Its like a plumber who we used to pass all our business from the letting office to. His business grew on the back of our leads. He then started charging mad money for everything as he knew we referred to him and was “safe” but when we realised we had a word. He didnt back down on his price hike and we therefore used someone else and he went from having three vans on the road down to just one………. himself!
Point being, we provided the business to him, like we do to RM & Z. If we dont they will end up in a van on their own too….
I hope thats not dented your emotional state too much, if its any consolation I didnt dislike your post!
PP has a point. Something that many for and against OTM forget. Many agents can’t afford to be on more than one or two, so that’s the duoploy argument out the window Trevor let alone a trioploy. It is his/hers business and it is up to him or her to make the business decision that is right for them. Any web site starting off today has a hurdle to overcome the established monopoly (currently under investigation) and this is where the men and woman stand out from the crowd who can afford to make a change if they believe it is needed. Obviously a change was needed! That change can only continue to grow if fence sitters take the plunge to help make it work.
Woodentop – Good post, and I actually agree with you that many agents can’t afford to be on more than one or two portals, especially at RM’s rates. But not too long ago I dis a quick ‘back of the envelope’ calculation (it was a quiet day !) and worked out that if we all got behind OTM and it actually became the No.1 portal I would save well over £60,000 in 5 years of portal advertising.
I guess the point I am making is can we afford NOT to give OTM a damn good shot at the title ? I’m sure agents up and down te land could put these considerable savings to better use within their businesses.
I think its an interesting change of direction for Zoopla however. They seem to have abandoned “we deliver more buyers” in favour we deliver more instructions leads. Suppose someone has been reading the comments on EYE!
Rubbish. As for the vendor leads, when we did subscribe to zoopla and paid extra for the privilege of the leads, barely 1 or 2 were even thinking of selling, most click the valuation thing wanting an instant dreamt up price.
Yawn!!! Fed up with reading all these posturing stories from both sides to be fair. We will all make our own minds up who we want to use and that’s the end of it, it’s just getting to the point of being boring!
The firms in Yorkshire are small time, don’t know about the others. I think we’d all get a more balanced view if we knew the rate that these firms have been offered to return. If they have returned on full rate card I would be much more impressed.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but not 2 years ago, the industry welcomed Zoopla with open arms, as a credible, pleasant to do business with alternative to RIghtmove. I’m glad they’re getting agents back on board – they are the only business that can take on RM. I don’t about about anyone else but I got my 15% RM price hike this month which is because OTM’s made them stronger than ever! Break up the duopoly?? Think not.
That’s because we all thought they would be an effective balance against the RM monopoly. If they’d have done that there would have never been any need for OTM.
Instead once they got us signed up they grabbed us in our nether regions and started twisting hard just like Rightmove. I believe the phrase used at a shareholders meeting was they intended to ‘slipstream Rightmove’ when it came to costs.
You may have had your RM price hike but you would have had that anyway. The difference is that Zoopla can’t hang onto RM’s coat tails now and they are desperately chopping their fees. Do you really think that would’ve happened without OTM?
Agents second portal costs have dropped, the difference is there is a choice of second portals now, that’s the trade off.
The alternative is that you wouldn’t have just been moaning about 15% on Rightmove BD, it would’ve been Zoopla as well.
Here here El Burro. Thats it in a nutshell.
The best way to hit a duoploy.
Make a trioploy. Crazy.
Disgraceful. How dare PIE run a positive story about Zoopla. Harry N and jmeapps01 (see yesterday’s Savills story) will be outraged at this blatant example of balanced reporting. Come on you two, let’s have your spittle-flecked take on how this story confirms PIE is in the pocket of OTM.
Oh dear the truth hurts doesn’t it!
Zoopla are trying anything to increase membership numbers just so they can make these press releases. They have been chasing our business for years and there last attempt to get us on board was a £75 per month offer. Memberships may be increasing with these kind of offers but profits certainly won’t be if they carry on so desperately trying to prove they have been unaffected by OTM
“Memberships may be increasing with these kind of offers but profits certainly won’t be if they carry on so desperately trying to prove they have been unaffected by OTM”
In fairness, grantlance, the above is incorrect.
It costs Z approximately bu99er all to set up and run a new client once they are at the level they are now.
99.9% of your money would be profit to them – but the press value would be worth FAR more – immediately and long-term…
”’and that’s the sad thing. WE are the pawns being sacrificed – when the board and all the pieces actually ‘belong’ to us.
What PeeBee said!!!!
It’s not only pure profit for Zoopla, but incredible PR while Agents’ Mutual is outflanked into a “no comment”. So lame.
A begrudging well done to Zoopla. They know how to play the game. And win.
“They have been chasing our business for years and there last attempt to get us on board was a £75 per month offer”
I am sure that the pressure is on for Zoopla. With ‘loss leader’ offers such as this, it is likely that are trying to stop OTM as quickly as possible. If successful, which I now doubt as OTM seem to have good traction and I personally am seeing returns on my investment in OTM, it would simply return to a higher rate card later with huge annual increases similarly to Rightmove. I for one am in for the long haul and I am happy to invest in my future. I am concerned that if agents are leaving OTM as Zoopla are claiming, they are looking at this in the short term and are clearly worried about the impact on their business.
I hope in the forthcoming update meetings OTM address this issue openly…tackle head on the numbers joining and leaving and tackle the issue raised on here of the new packages that may/may not be offered to new members. As a mutual, we should have clarity on these issues.
And there you have it OTM/ AM = clarity the only clarity is those at the top of the mutual pile give two stuffs about those at the bottom I thought mutual meant all the same equal say, back to basic communism some are more mutual than others at least with Zoopla and RM you know you’re being shafted but getting something in return OTM (the emperors new clothes)!!