Zoopla has recruited Knight Frank partner Gráinne Gilmore as its head of research.
Gilmore was head of UK residential research at Knight Frank and before that had a successful 11-year career as a journalist for The Times.
She will join in a newly created role as part of Zoopla’s research and insight team, which is led by Richard Donnell.
Gilmore said: “Zoopla is innovating to help agents and developers, and inform consumers on every aspect of their property journey, making it a very exciting time to join the business.
“There is a real opportunity to leverage Zoopla’s wide breadth of unique data through market leading analytics and data science to deliver additional value to our customers and to inform first-time buyers, home movers, renters, investors and developers.”
Donnell, research and insight director at Zoopla, said: “Gilmore is one of the UK’s leading housing market analysts and we are delighted she has joined Zoopla to expand our programme of thought leadership and market insight.
“Zoopla has a unique view on the market trends and the research team will continue to develop insights that help agents and developers adapt to an evolving market environment. This is another impactful senior appointment and the whole Zoopla team is thrilled to have Gilmore on board.”
Comments (8)
Left OTM last month, exiting as a original gold member
Sad that OTM failed my business and others however the money saved is added to my local marketing spend which delivers measurable business
It would be good to say I wish otm well however their treatment of founding members was shabby and deceitful.
In reality I wish I had not been forced to waste 5 years being locked-in to con-the-market
There remains space for a true “Agents Portal”. OTM blew their opportunity. I simply lost faith and trust in them
We left Zoopla before the end of last year and do not miss it at all.
In the last six months of of membership OTM consistently provided five leads to Zoopla’s one. Sometimes as many as 10 to 1 on some properties.
Customers just don’t go there any more as the website is so amateur and their valuation tool is so inaccurate that it is borderline negligent. Also 25% of their leads some weeks are clearly ‘phishing’ ones that they seem unable to filter out.
If Grainne Gilmore wants to do some ‘research and insight’ she could start by analysing where all the customers have gone! It’s not hard to see why.
This is not an advert for OTM but we can only speak as we find and I can only recommend that if you are looking to renew with Zoopla, do some proper figures on what you are paying in pounds per lead.
If you are thinking of joining, I’d give it a miss and spend the budget (it’s going to be about £6000 a year minimum) on direct marketing with leaflets etc.. in your neighbourhood. If you have RM and OTM you’ll pick up all the leads that are out there and the Zoopla ones just aren’t worth having anyway.
Sorry Zoopla but it has to be said.
Which part of the country are you in?
Seems like there’s some trends where differing experiences occur in different parts of the country. Anyone agree / disagree?
Market town, outside M25, south of M4; but everbody is saying it. We were at a well known ‘awards evening’ during the festive period and everybody had the same story.
I’d believe Purplebricks’ TrustPilot reviews before I believed any data on their performance coming out of Zoolpla’s PR team.
We left On The Market last year, and we do not miss it at all. However, I do wish them well.
I have had a totally different experience to you Dyane. All of my offices are receiving better quality (and equal quantity) leads from Zoopla as we are from RM.
Where are you getting your ‘facts’ from to enable you to state that Zoopla ‘customers’ have gone? If you are not with Zoopla how can you claim that 25% of their leads are phishermen? It’s fair enough having an opinion (maybe even an agenda), but you sound like Laura Kuenssberg.
This is not an advert for Zoopla, it’s just my opinion. I do believe that I will witness and benefit from the rise of Zoopla and the subsequent demise of RM. It’s looking good at the moment and I feel that Zoopla will enhance their product rapidly as this year unfolds.
Each to their own though Dyane, so best wishes for a cracking year – it’s started off like crazy where I am!
Indeed, each to their own thoughts but just to confirm that we counted and analysed every lead over a whole quarter to give ourselves exactly accurate data before making such an important decision; one that we have not regretted.
We’ve had a stonking start to the New year too, with a good rush of new instructions that came from the masses of leaflets that we delivered at the tail end of 2019, with the money that we saved from not having to pay Zoopla.
That’s kind of the bigger point. You don’t need all 3.
Use the two that give you the best results in your area (by your own very thorough anaylsis) and then spend the rest on direct marketing into your community so that you cover all the bases. It’s working for us!
I was considering changing to zoopla as my only portal
Unfortunately my initial discussions were handled poorly and their attitude was poor
0/10 zoopla – not for my business
Same here. They need to spend more money on customer service not on expensive researchers.