Nick Leeming, the father of the property portals business in the UK and one of the most respected figures in the industry, has joined the board of a Scottish lettings website – at a time when the industry is facing up to a number of challenges.

Leeming, who launched Propertyfinder in 1995 and which was the fore-runner of today’s Zoopla, has joined Lettingweb as a non-executive director.

Leeming is already on the boards of lettings chain Belvoir and Spark Energy, which supplies utilities to the private rented sector, and chairs the board of Jackson Stops & Staff.

Lettingweb is currently trying to part-mutualise by offering a 50% share of its business to Scottish letting agents.

It says that this is in response to several threats to the Scottish letting industry, including un-named but “aggressive online publishers seeking to achieve monopoly status” and dictate marketing prices and terms.

Another threat, it says, is the poor image that the lettings industry has, and a third is the “ill-considered legislation” that has come through in recent years.

Leeming was with Propertyfinder through a number of changes over the years. When it morphed into Zoopla, he became Zoopla’s business development director, leaving in 2012.

He said of his latest appointment: “I’m joining at an exciting time for Lettingweb.

“This is a time of transition in the online property market, when innovation is key and a shared ownership model for Scotland is going to revolutionise services for our letting agents.”