Zoopla’s agency numbers have returned to growth, the portal announced this morning.

It said it had a net increase of 213 new branches since its last update in April.

Analysts at Jefferies, the bank which advised Zoopla on its stock market debut of last year, put out a statement this morning saying: “In our view the net growth and reduced churn of agency branches demonstrates that those that left the platform to join OnTheMarket have found it wanting, despite the relaxation of the one other portal rule.

“Over the next 12 months we expect many of the 3,000 or so Zoopla leavers to return.”

It is not clear what Jefferies means by its reference to the “relaxation of the one other portal rule” – while OTM itself this morning said that there had been no relaxation.  Zoopla’s statement itself makes no reference to OTM.

Another analyst, William Packer of Exane BNP Paribas, said that while Zoopla has reported a return to agency growth of 1% from the trough, membership is still 24% below peak. He also called traffic growth “tepid”, and described the client loss since quarter three last year and loss of traffic share as “challenging”.

Zoopla’s statement this morning said its total UK agency membership as at the end of July now numbers 12,556 – up from April’s figure, but down from the 16,261 of a year ago.

Total Zoopla membership now stands at 16,131, including 2,672 developers, 684 overseas and 219 commercial.

In an upbeat trading update to the City this morning, Zoopla said that UK agency churn is “returning towards more normal historic levels and an increase in the number of new and returning member inquiries”.

It also said its listings inventory had continued to grow, from 828,000 to 882,000 properties.

Traffic remained strong, with 45.6m average monthly visits between April 1 and July 31.

The update also said that it was sending “record numbers of appraisal leads to members, up 103% over the same period last year and helping our members win more business”.

Of its acquisition of uSwitch on June 1, Zoopla said this is trading well.

Zoopla also underlined that Alex Chesterman, its founder, is committing over the long term to continue leading it, “working to achieve the significant long-term growth potential of the group”.

The update goes on to say that the board “is proposing some changes to Alex’s remuneration, principally the introduction of a Value Creation Plan in order to appropriately incentivise and reward his continued substantial contribution to the performance of the Group”.

A general meeting of shareholders will have to approve this value creation plan.

The trading update goes on to say that Chesterman has “further been granted authority by the Chairman to sell up to a maximum of 4.25m shares, represenging c. 1% of the Group’s issued share capital, over the coming months to settle personal tax and other liabilities.”

The balance of his shares will be subject to a lock-up until next June 23, the second anniversary of Zoopla’s float on the stock exchange.

In May, in its first results after the launch of OnTheMarket, Zoopla said it had lost 23% of its UK agency members as at March 31.

There were 12,449 member agents at that date, down from 16,261 the previous year.

It also said it went on to lose another 106 agents in April. However, this morning’s update spells out gains since then, although still well down from last year’s numbers.

Last month Rightmove also reported a rise in agent numbers when it delivered record results, reporting growth in total customer numbers to 19,590, with agency numbers up 2% in the first half of this year.