The portal Lettingweb has converted itself into what has been described as a ‘commutual’ – a cross between a commercial organisation and a mutual.
The Scottish website is offering letting agents a 50% share of its business and is consulting on whether to adopt a strict ‘one other portal’ rule.
Lettingweb, which last week announced its merger with membership organisation LetScotland, is currently on a three-day equity roadshow covering Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, telling agents of its new offering.
The ‘one other portal’ rule would allow agents to list on Zoopla as well as Lettingweb – as the two are parters – leaving agents to choose another Scottish portal, or the likes of Rightmove.
However, a complication could be that a number of top agents in Scotland have already signed up as Gold members of Agents’ Mutual, which will enforce a strict only one other portal rule.
In 2012, Zoopla partnered exclusively with Lettingweb – meaning that any Scottish letting agent uploading properties to Lettingweb also has their properties listed on Zoopla.
The tie-up means that Lettingweb is effectively Zoopla’s letting arm in Scotland.
Lettingweb said that the first two roadshows had been exceptionally well attended, with the third taking place tonight.
CEO Alex Watts said of the “mutualisation” proposal: “It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for letting agents to take control over their own destiny.”
He said a threat to the lettings industry in Scotland was an “aggressive online publisher” seeking to achieve monopoly status in the Scottish market and dictate marketing prices and terms to agents.
He cited another threat as a “damaging external environment, with ill-considered legislation and a hostile media leading to a distorted view of letting agents and the private rented sector”.
Thomas Ashdown, of Lettingweb competitor Citylets, said: “Citylets commends any initiative that purports to be for the good of the industry.
“It is not our intention to comment on the merits of this hydrid model or proposition at this time but would however say that standing independent from Zoopla would likely be deemed helpful now by Scottish letting agents and, if this ‘aggressive online publisher’ referred to is Rightmove, would ask: is Zoopla any different?”
* The Scottish Parliament yesterday voted against a Labour proposal to bring in rent controls and mandatory three-year tenancies.
it seems to me the standing of lettingweb to call for any kind of mutual is undone by their continued relations as a listings feeder for zoopla.
how can anyone who uploads all their listings to zoopla turn round to agents and suggest dropping the use of other sites as an act of protection against the big brands.
the question was asked at the edinburgh night and the reply was essentially 'don't worry we'll have zoopla under control by then and we'll be able as a collective organisation to negotiate a good deal for you'. how exactly? will Zoopla be anywhere near your table for a start? Zoopla already holds the whip hand in this partnership providing the more leads.
Zoopla and rightmove are two peas in a pod now – both with billion pound valuations.
many agents want to either opt out of the zoopla 'add on' or go to zoopla direct now. this news just creates more confusion.
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the lettingweb business development model now seems to be 'befriend and lend'. only days after suddenly becoming the out and out agents friend through what was described as a merger with a fledgling representative body, there is a call to cash.
all pretence to being an industry body or whatever should be abandoned until all profit aspirations are let go. the motive here is profit. it has to be one or the other.
and yes, zoopla would have to go too for this to be a credible call to stand against the big brands.
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Thank you for the coverage Rosalind much appreciated.
For some clarity: Lettingwebs position is not that we are anti other portals- they represent respected platforms that deliver good enquiries to our members. What we are against is a scenario when a publisher gains monopoly or near monopoly status and abuses that position to dictate pricing and push costs up for agents -and thus the marketing cost of letting a property i.e profiteering at the expense of letting agents and landlords margins.
Lettingwebs member firms act as a great collective buying group – this benefits all of our members. We have a long standing partnership with Zoopla (previously Propertyfinder) spanning over 11 years that has proven the test of time to be a win/win for all parties- Zoopla gain circa 75% of the Scottish letting agent listings in Scotland without sales cost – our members get a very fair price to list their properties as part of the buying group- receive great national coverage, enquiries for their business at very fair value.
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I too was at the Edinburgh event and take a much more open and listening view. Portal wars are nothing new and wherever all that ends up, the notion of letting agents in Scotland working together (of which there has been too little) is clearly a good thing. I also actually quite like the idea of a commercial/member organisation. One eye on profit and one eye on member interests – is there a problem? Does the letting industry in Scotland need to up its game? Of course it does. I say let's give the team at Lettingweb (who in my experience are entirely credible) our best efforts to try and make this work. It may be a very different approach, but they appear to have the skills, resources and something of a vision – good on them.
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Disappointing that the focus on this innovation has been to flock to the negative. The offer is just that, an offer; not an obligation.
My takeaway from the event was that there was now a balanced, commercially aware body able to speak on behalf of agents in Scotland. This was evidenced by the rent control amendment being defeated in the Scottish Parliament yesterday. This amendment could have had extremely negative consequences for both tenants and landlords so it was encouraging to see a broad view being taken.
In addition, the move towards providing intelligent market data to agents has been far too long in coming and should be warmly welcomed. This allows us to better inform landlords thus increasing stock in the PRS which is good for all parties concerned whether you are tenant, landlord, agent or politician.
I spent individual time with all the main speakers after the talk and all were knowledgeable, passionate about their subject and seeking to drive up standards throughout our industry.
Some cynicism can be healthy but I think we fail to see the positive at times. On balance, a very worthwhile initiative for our industry.
James Callaghan
Domino Letting
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