The chances of “price aggression” from Zoopla are set to increase, a City analyst has said, as more agents opt to quit the portal and stick with Rightmove.
Barclays says that shares in Rightmove look “broadly fairly valued and Zoopla extremely inexpensive”. However, it accepts that there is “more short risk associated with Zoopla”.
It goes on to say that OnTheMarket will not be doing anything different from Rightmove and Zoopla.
The report estimates that a total of 4,000 OnTheMarket branches will leave the big two – with 3,000 leaving Zoopla and 1,000 quitting Rightmove.
Glentree Estates – the upmarket agent in Hampstead, London – is however one of those which will stay with Zoopla.
The one-office firm is the last of the Agents’ Mutual founders whose intentions are now clear.
Of the seven original founders, five (Humberts, Knight Frank, Savills, Douglas & Gordon and Strutt & Parker) are opting for Rightmove. Two – Glentree and Chestertons – have chosen Zoopla.
Of the three other agent board members, all have chosen Rightmove. The latest to show their hand is Rook Matthews Sayer in the north-east.
Barclays advise both Rightmove and Zoopla investors to “hang in there”.
The report insists: “We believe that AM won’t get the consumer traction it needs.”
However, it acknowledges that “early Agents’ Mutual trends seem to be in favour of Rightmove” and has lowered Zoopla accordingly.
The report estimates that around 80% of a total of some 770 OnTheMarket branches will stick with Rightmove and drop Zoopla. However, it also acknowledges that the 770 that it knows about remains a small sample.
OnTheMarket boss Ian Springett told Eye this week that over 4,600 offices are now signed up.
Comments (57)
And why the bickering has been going on I have looked at all my listing on OTM and found everything to be spot on, I am very very impressed. 26th is a winner. Shame the doubters are going to miss out, for it is you who will have to explain to your customers why you are not on it, for those that are have you at a disadvantage.
I want to put this "online shop window" thing to bed . I have a shop window, in it,I display properties and vendors pay me money to have space in this shop window to sell their homes. Zoopla has an online shop window …its massive .Rightmove have a even bigger one.Right now part of the money the vendor pays me is to rent space in that online shop window. Right now OTM doesnt have an "online shop window" its boarded over . If (big if) a million people visit OTM in their first year of tradind using Rightmove and Zoopla's vistor figures their "online shop window" will be approximately 27 times smaller than Rightmoves and 23 times smaller than Zoopla. I would expect vendors to be saying "its an online shop window alright , but its awfully small,and not alot of people are using it, and I want to sell my house now not in 3 years when its established,and the agent down the road has told me that they will put me in their bigger shop window for the same fee. I just cant see it…
oh Danny……. you play right into the hands of those who think some agents just list a property online and hope for the best.
Ric, I think you fail to understand that in this circumstance (like many), fact is unimportant and perception is everything. If the vendor PERCEIVES that a large part of home selling lies in online lead generation through Rightmove and Zoopla, then you will lose instructions. Plain and simple. May not be right and may not be fair. But when the agent next door tells the seller that Zoopla is important to their prospects in selling their home, the fact that you aren't on it is going to hurt you, regardless of the veracity of the original statement. And when you start losing instructions because of it, this is going a get a lot more real in a hurry.
ukpropmaster, absolutely correct. Any AM agent who thinks that a non AM agent can't develop a very strong instruction pitch around the sellers perception of the importance/brand awareness/visitor figures of RM and Z has their head in the sand. Collectively, AM agents nationwide will lose a pile of existing clients and instructions because of this. I predict a good number will get cold feet on AM very quickly, especially non Gold members, and walk away from OTM.
ukpropmaster – …………..(Sorry about to brag but this is genuine as I have so much passion about my job and business. Changing the mind set of some on here would have them realise, just one portal is enough and no portal should be sold as more important than your brand and companies proactive approach to selling property – I believe the internet has simply given a chance for weaker agents to get some stock and fair enough!)……………….I have not been on Z (bar a 6 month stint in 2012) Our brand has been trading for 24 years, (1991, 2000, 2010 and 2013 were our 4 office openings)…………………ALL of my competitors are on Z and RM (some strong indeps and the usual LSL/CW offices) yet I have remained a market leader against agents and some very good ones who claim(ed) RM/Z combo is vital………… I still list more and sell more and still get told "your the first choice agent"………………… My newest 2 offices were hammered when they opened with they are not on RM/Z so are not the right agents yet both were/are (FACT) market share leading offices and got there within 12 months (I personally opened and ran both)………………..It does not matter what one agents says……… it matters more what the better agent can demonstrate and if delivered with sincerity and facts and in a way where the customer is left with no doubt they are making the right choice then they will get the business (the key is backing up your claims and delivering! and this is where just listing on a website is not enough ………………. I do agree public perception is important which is why I have said I would NOT drop RM anytime soon until I know I can demonstrate it is not needed ……………………… I think much is in the mind set and I sit here amazed if I am the only agent in the country who knows or believes and can demonstrate the websites are just back up and only one is required, I would have been out of business years ago if you are right or I have a special power no other agent has (and I doubt that very much)………… I guess my big mistake is arguing and debating on here, as perhaps the other agents like me can't be bothered and are just getting on with it letting the debate heat up whilst they make money……….. I just happen to fill my spare 5 and 10 minutes on here posting as I feel oddly compelled to wish others would just realise they are better than needing RM/Z to be different…….anyway our offices are now closing and its time to get home… I look forward to be ripped to pieces by the time I get home!
Spot on Ric. I celebrate 40 years in estate agency next month so have been around the block – built an agency, sold it late eighties and bought it back in the nineties. The internet is just a shop window and we only need one window. You guys should stop playing follow my leader and be courageous enough to climb aboard Am for the good of the future of our industry.
ukpropmaster – you say "May not be right and may not be fair. But when the agent next door tells the seller that Zoopla is important to their prospects in selling their home, the fact that you aren't on it is going to hurt you"…………………..you see, this is perhaps the agency issue………….the FACT as you put it above in this or my case is not true! I am your actual example of not being on Z is not an issue and never has been………………… I think the agency "perception" is the problem not the public perception, the brainwashed mind set of agents…….. you say something enough and you start to believe it……… but actually is it true……. could it be possible that if your property is on RM and NOT on Z it will still be seen, well yes, it will…… but some agents think saying it is on RM and Z is sensible………. but the FACT is, if someone (serious buyer) searches in a village and sees 36 properties on Z (taken from one of my smaller village areas we cover as an example) they will know there is something wrong as RM shows 227…….. so the FACT is buyers will look at both………………. BUT probably once they have figured out Z's 36 houses are on RM as well, they will stop looking at Z as what is the point, same stock different coloured website………………… (This is what OTM have to stop! and exclusive listings may be the only way this will start) either way is perception is key as you put it, could it be agency perception (the weaker agents) dare not drop Z because they fear they have nothing else to try and keep up with by way of facts and figures to support why they are best agent to use…….anyway, its good we all think different, I would hate it if all the agents became switched on…..the less said the better sometimes.
If you had two shop windows, would you duplicate them both with the same properties?
Everyone looks on RM. There's no need for Z.
The reason they both have similar traffic is because they both offer similar coverage of property, so one day a buyer might use Z, another day it's RM.
I sometimes pick up my milk from Tesco, sometimes Sainsbury's. When I'm feeling flush, I might even pop into Waitrose. However, if Tesco and Waitrose stopped selling milk, I would only go to Sainsbury's.
Instead of posting retail analogies to provide analogies for a service industry how about thinking of service sector analogies? All this talk about online changing agency is not based on anything more than opinion and propaganda rooted at the base of the Internet service sector. During a stint with DPG prior to the Zooplarisation I got to see the stats coming through on a month by month basis. There is no substance to hits, page views or time on site that can be linked in any meaningful way to instructions, anyone who says otherwise has a vested interest in claiming so. An agent who wins genuine saleable instructions and understands what that actually means has a fully optimised Estate Agency business.
I need to type less Robert but get the same message across! Perfectly put.
Two shop windows in two different parts of town as some people go to one area, some to the other, and some to both areas. Two different unique audiences, but some cross over… Yes I would duplicate. It makes business sense for maximum exposure.
….and, as an estate agent and a homeseller!….. I want a Property Portal as part of my marketing…. I want an estate agent who recognises this is probably the most valuable asset in monetary terms that I own, as well as being my home…. I just want my estate agent to work in my best interests… it's why I selected that estate agent. The sooner we get back to our jobs….. Ditch The Duopoly….. use OnTheMarket.com for exactly what it needs to be….. an Online Property Shop Window, doing just that…. no Duopoly drama, no Duopoly shareholder profits, no Duopoly gimmicks, no Duopoly biased analysts spouting nonsense etc…..
What's this?….. deafening noise of Financial Stats, Company Performance/Share Forecasts, Brand Awareness etc…..released by The Duopoly or those with a vested interest in The Duopoly… the sound of jangling nerves at Duopoly Towers!…. I wonder what has caused all this commotion?… The Duopoly Departments of Statutory Annual Membership Increases have awoken! ….. they hear the footsteps of OnTheMarket.com….. the cosy profit party for The Two-opoly has been rudely awakened!
Its from Barclays, it says it in the title .They make their money out of being experts in their markets and advising people what to do with their investments….in a dark cloak with daggers out marked Estate agents.
Zoopla should get aggressive on their own membership prices. In my view they have a golden opportunity to turn their fortunes around. As we know, Rightmove are just sending out their (not small) increase in fees letters which always sees their popularity drop. Zoopla should be writing to all those who left them and offer them a 3 year fixed office price of say £150 per office. See how many would consider moving back their stock to them them! They could seriously damage RM.
"As we know, Rightmove are just sending out their (not small) increase in fees letters which always sees their popularity drop."…My letter from Rightmove came in today, the rise is 8.7%.
That's not far off what Z offered me to stay, But think bit late for them now to make a play, 6/8 months ago if offered to agents more may have dropped RM – Lets hope some do this time round a price increase time as Paul mentioned.
ElTel .. you say … The consumer will check out the site where the properties are – simple as! Forget London, if you are looking to buy in Never Wallop and Z & RM only have half a dozen homes between them and OTM have say 30 or more where are you going to search first? …. If I am a buyer looking for a property in Never Wallop and I only use RM or Z and there are X amount of properties on either or both …. how do I know there are more on OTM? You are assuming that if a buyer sees 3 properties on RM or Z they will automatically think "mmmm, there must be more than that, I'll check out a few other sites" and that they will somehow stumble on OTM. That is wishful thinking. Unless AM come up with a spectacular TV ad that offers a huge hook to visit OTM they won't easily break Joe Public's habit of going to RM or Z.
Smile Please – why do you insist on answering on behalf of the consumer? The 'web generation' as we may call them expect and are used to price transparency. Buying/selling a car – you research a range of prices online – you don't rely on the word of a car dealer. Renewing/organising insurance – you go to comparison websites so you know of the best deal or the price range so you are confident you don't get ripped off or pay over the odds. Holidays ditto. Etc etc. But in your world vendors/buyers don't want to research the biggest asset they do own or are planning to own, instead taking the word of an estate agent who we know, with the best will in the world, rate with lawyers and recruitment consultants as having a poor reputation (whether deserved or not). Really? Please don't presume to speak for the public – you are only focused on 'control' and your own narrow self interest, which is very different to be focused on the consumer.
truthbetold – spot on. It takes a massive amount of constant advertising and consistently good user experience for any product or service to become anywhere near a nationally used brand or household name. If estate agents think they can make OTM into a quick success just by "telling Joe Public all about it" they are in for a big crash to earth. As I've said before, unless OTM's TV ads hit Joe Public's sweet spot in a massive way the traffic to OTM will be minimal compared to RM or Z. As a non AM agent I can't wait for Z to be displaying a fraction of the properties in my area because the traffic won't drop much but my sellers will have a field day with less competition available! How many AM agents have realized that?
Is that not you are doing truthbetold? you are are saying "They want this, they need that" and its just not the case. What the public want is properties for sale the rest is just filler. And you are doing a disservice to vendors they do research they look online (i know you love the web) see what offering an agent has, where they advertise, they check the paper, they speak to friends and then they have a "Beauty parade" of 3 – 5 agents to present to them in their home which is completely free of charge and usually lasts an hour. What you are trying to do is dumb down a service and profession to the lowest common denominator. The agent they like, they trust, believes will get them the best price and within their timescale they instruct and as a bonus they do not have to pay a penny until its sold!
Harree, you've simply lost the plot. Do you honestly think that buyers live in an internet bubble and if they can only find three properties online they'll assume that's all there is. Of course not, they'll search for agents in the towns they're thinking of moving to and then….wait for it…. call them! Imagine that, human interaction!. Then, once they've spoken to a number of agents they'll realise they need to look at OTM to get the full picture of stock available.
It's really not rocket science.
Clearly you have not seen the OTM launch promo material or the planned exposure. Believe me fencesitters will be queuing up to join in 3 months time!
Has not everybody? It's on you tube.
Why would anybody be interested in a bankers opinion – No doubt only trying to feather his own corrrupt nest or protect his reputation after recommending folk buy shares in a business heading for financial meltdown. I would estimate Zoopla will lose around 4000 branches by the end of January. My business has just saved 16k a year by dumping Zoopla. Based upon that ratio 4000 x 8k = 32 MILLION pounds. Its clearly doesn't need a city annalist to figure out that Zoopla is going to be seriously damaged.
Just remember that we, the agents, know far more about our market than bankers. RM and Z will only continue to thrive if they find a different business plan. Agents will soon to taking away their most important asset – stock. We certainly have no plans to have our properties on Z and all stock will go on Rightmove at least 48 hours after OTM. Stock rules!
Is the most important asset not the clients and eye balls????? Put every property in the world on one website, and if only a small number of people visit it, and do not keep returning, it won't stay on-line for long. People only visit a site if they know of it, trust it and like it.
The clients and eyeballs as you put it will follow the property. There is no doubt OTM will launch with great support in number of properties and agents. I believe within a year they will establish themselves as the second portal. Think about it logically 1sttimebuyer, If a large majority of agents are otm and you are looking at buying / selling and you keep hearing about otm and seeing stickers and its on headed paper you get from agents, its in newspapers and they also have tv advertising. It will not take long for the public to find and use the site. Also factor in zoopla and rightmove will not be pushed by the agents stickers removed, logos off stationary and out of press. And nobody is expecting visitor numbers in the millions come launch day!
Yes OTM will be a player, but it takes a long time to become a number two in any UK market, and many EA's are under estimating this and the power of the consumer wanting knowledge and information. OTM doesn't provide this, there is next to no data, and an uninteresting site. And don't forget, both RM/Zoopla are not exactly going to be sitting back just watching it all happen. Interesting times ahead.
1st time buyer, you are spot on. Consumers expect transparency, add on's such as valuation tools – the world has moved on. The EA, just as in every other business cannot 'control' the consumer/vendor/buyer like they used to. News Boy and his ilk can't see further than their own noses…as I have said before, and to paraphrase Bill Clinton – it's all about the consumers stupid. I haven't spoken to any consumer who has the faintest idea of who/what OTM is, and to drive that awareness they have an extremely limited (comparably) marketing budget. Having seen the PR video OTM were showing on their pre-xmas roadshows, it was like a time warp! Interesting times…
Not so truthbetold & FTB. The consumer will check out the site where the properties are – simple as! Forget London, if you are looking to buy in Never Wallop and Z & RM only have half a dozen homes between them and OTM have say 30 or more where are you going to search first?
Consumers do not want valuation"Tools" RM dont offer it and Z's is a joke! What the public want is a choice of property clearly presented on an easy to use website thats it! – anything else is just fluff portal providers add to make more money (its not for the consumers!). Have you seen otm website? i have not as i have not signed up, guessing you have not either so how can you knock it? Agents will want the backend system which from what i understand OTM does not have, but this wont effect the public.
Spot on smileplease…… I have seen the website and it is great (my opinion), I now have access to MyAM also (OTM's agent area dash board) and I can see the uploads working and I can change pictures, write ups etc etc so I have full control over my properties on OTM………… Best Price Guides etc will come in time for OTM but they need to create the history first so perhaps 6 months to 1 year minimum before we will see these, in the meantime we have RM+ and Nethouseprice to do what we do with……..and like you say the public do not care about the background stuff a website offers agents as long as they can see property on it……………………. All very exciting and it was good to see and use MyAM and get a chance to change my company BIO and office info, logo's etc – everything points to my company website within it too….. basically very good so far and nice to see a property I put on last night was on my available list ready for launch within an hour or so, so the upload is seemingly working fine…… Just checked Z for the area/office I base my self at and they now have 14% of the local stock, with RM at 100% and OTM with………91%……. not bad for day 1! well not even day 1…….91%…. a few sales pre RM listing and off the back of OTM and we are on the way to treating RM as I did Z.
If Google suddenly stopped giving you search results would you carry on using it? Happily typing away questions only to be confronted with a blank screen but carrying on anyway because you're familiar with the name and know the URL.
No, you would start using Bing instead….
Why would consumers want an online valuation "Tool" when you can ring up any amount of local agents who will spend an hour or two of their time travelling out to see your property and value it for nothing? Whose the real "tool" here?
The main problem isn't how much Zoopla and Rightmove charge agents, its more how much High street Agents charge vendors, start listening to the consumer paying 1.5% in fees is to much people are looking for cheaper ways to sell their property, all yourve actually done is create a website for the general public to avoid.
Which consumers should we be listening to Gecko? the 2% market share that use an online agent or the 98% that still prefer the traditional route.
Why not all of them?
90% of people start there property search on-line, people that haven't sold there house for 5-10 years still believe that you have to use a local Estate Agents, the fact is there are other ways, every property that goes on the market ends up on Rightmove or Zoopla, you just don't need a high street to sell a property any more and this should be reflected in the fees.
'90% start *their* property search *online*'
Do you know how many people end up buying the first property they enquire about?
Do you know how many properties are sold to registered buyers rather than rightmove leads.
Do you know how many people visit estate agents offices?
Seeing as you are a portal guru, could you tell us what your average RM CTR is?
"90% of people start there property search on-line"
100% of eejits believe that ********.
Yeah, why pay a High Street agent 1.5% when you can place your prized asset with a faceless internet based individual sat at home in bed with his laptop 200 miles away for £500. The customer service level must be identical.
I think I'd rather sell my house through the 98% share of the market than the 2% internet only option. Please always remember to use the word internet ONLY when talking about these bedroom boys and girls.
You mean business competitors. Afraid of a little competition?
Stop using the internet today and see how many properties you sell
Challenge laid down months ago to Messrs Day, Quirk etc and never got a squeak in return. You saying that YOUR effort could survive where THEIRS obviously couldn't, Gecko?
We visit all our properties and meet all vendors, as for sitting at home in bed with a laptop its got to be better than sitting in an office watching youtube waiting for someone to come through the door.
Why should i give a high street agent £7500 to sell my home would you?. The majority of internet Estate Agents used to work in high streets its called progression. I totally agree that customer must be identical and believe that online agents should be regulated, it just boils down to high street agents trying to protect there profits, more people will be selling there properties through online agents within the next five years than they do the traditional and more expensive way.
Gecko – if RM charges are not a problem why do you not advertise on them??? – £295 0r £595 includes epc, board, pro photos and zoopla listing – Need to "List" a lot of property to make a living. Considering you only have 3 properties for sale on your site and looks like the pictures are taken by a child on a smartphone i think you may want to revist your business plan!
Not every high street Estate Agent uses both portals, agreed we do have to list a lot of properties and we will do this year. Ask yourself one thing if you wasn't an Estate Agent would you not look for a cheaper proven method to sell you property?
I would look for a relevant medium to sell my property that would maximise my return. No offence but your website is your shop window, i would not want my properties displayed alongside the properties you have for sale. Your stamp duty figures are wrong, you have no success to speak of and you are not on the uks number one property portal. i might save a few quid on fees but i feel looking at your offering i would loose on my achieved price. stepping over pounds to pick up pennies. Good luck in 2015 i hope you list ALOT of properties as you will need to. But i would look at your virtual shop window from a potential purchaser stand as opposed to just "cheapest is best" i also ran a search on your website, you need to invest heavily in SEO or PPC as the public at this time wont even find your virtual shop
Thank you for you comments.
No. I would be looking at what service proposition gave me the best chance of maximising the price of my most valued asset.
I'm also bored of people suggesting that a high street presence is the reason we have to charge higher fees. It's a nonsense. The vast majority of my costs go on good quality personnel. That's the key difference between the online only/traditional model. Selling property isn't an automated, electronic process. It requires lots of hands on management and personal intervention. One of my guys has just spent the last week dealing with a price reduction request based on a "suspicion of damp" raised by the surveyor. My neg arranged for two firms to quote, one of which didn't show up at the appointment and had to be rescheduled, blah, blah, blah. The upshot is the damp is far less significant than thought and the buyer has dropped their request. This sort of thing just isn't managed by the online firms. They also have no motivation to sort it, given they've already been paid upfront. So the vendor ends up selling their house for £500 but reducing £4k for the damp that wasn't successfully defended by a decent agent. What good value these online guys offer!
Bang on the money! The only saving is staffing levels and quality of staff, and whats the biggest overhead for an agent? portals? rent? nope staffing! so if you dont have good staff and pay them well how can an onliner offer a comparative service?!
"…if you wasn't an Estate Agent…"
Excuse me – what kind of grammar is THAT??
Chum – your Sales Particulars must be a joy to behold…
…and HERE'S the perfect example – on a property in Rochford, priced at just a whisker off £185,000, you REALLY push the boat out to impress both your paying client AND the homebuying public with:
"Grade II Listed building. Two bedroom,i need of some loving care but 1 have the potential to be a little gem."
AND THATS ALL, FOLKS! THAT, and four of the most amazingly cr@p photos ever taken on a one-megapixel phone camera (including featured shopping trolley dumped in the side yard…) published on your website is what you get for your… how much you stung them for in this instance, Gecko – THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR QUID, is it?
Yup, chum – YEWS 1S DA FEWTURE of Estate Agency i ave know doute!