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First-time Buyers

New property portal ‘trying to stifle innovation’

Paula John
Written By:
Paula John
Posted:
Updated:
26/01/2015

The launch of property portal Onthemarket.com has created “the single biggest conflict of interest” witnessed between agents and their clients, according to Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman.

Launched today to rival major property websites Zoopla and Rightmove, Onthemarket.com includes national estate agents such as Savills, Knight Frank and Chestertons.

If an estate agent wishes to list on the new website, they will be forced to drop Rightmove or Zoopla, in a bid to break up the duopoly created by the market leaders. Online agents are also banned from the portal.

The new portal can be viewed on all technologies and does not use third-party advertising or spam emails.

Over 4,600 estate and letting agent offices have moved all their properties and advertising spend to the new portal, according to Onthemarket. It said “hundreds of thousands” of properties are now for sale and to rent at a range of price points across the UK on the portal.

According to a Sunday Times report published in December, Rightmove has 1.2 million homes listed, with Zoopla listing around 1 million.

Zoopla Property Group CEO Alex Chesterman said: “This new portal, owned by about one-in-four high street estate agents, is a regressive business model trying to stifle innovation at the expense of home sellers up and down the country. It creates the single biggest conflict of interest we have ever seen between an agent and their client where the agent is now trying to limit exactly what the seller is paying for – maximum exposure of their property.

“Sellers must now think very carefully about which agent to appoint and, at the very least, any seller using an agent involved with this new portal will now have to ensure that they don’t enter a sole agency contract and that they use at least one other agent who will advertise their property on all the major portals including Zoopla, Rightmove and PrimeLocation.”

The HomeOwners Alliance previously called the new portal a blow to consumers’ interests and bad news for buyers.

Onthemarket said that by taking away complete market coverage from Zoopla and Rightmove, its portal would become a “must view” website, meaning its rivals would suffer a substantial hit to their income and lose large amounts of property stock.

Graham Wilson, managing director of DDM Residential, said: “I was one of the first to sign up to Onthemarket when it was first mooted back in 2013. We’ve been paying around £60,000 a year to Rightmove and I’d rather invest those costs into frontline staff.”


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