Zoopla has refused to be drawn on the reasons that it has taken all of its rental listings off Facebook Marketplace.
Sources say it has removed 300,000 properties, amid suggestions that the platform is planning to include advertising among the property listings.
It was only in early September that both Zoopla and OnTheMarket announced they were putting their rental property listings on the platform.
Last month, the House Shop also started listing its agents’ rental properties on Facebook Marketplace.
Notably Rightmove has not entered into any deal with Facebook Marketplace, which has private landlord listings side by side with those from agents.
A spokesperson for Zoopla told EYE: “We never comment on the specifics of our commercial arrangements.
“However, we work with a wide range of external partners and are always looking at different ways in which we can add value to our customers, both agents and consumers.
“Our priority is to support agents in growing their businesses and to provide consumers with a quality property search experience.”
The statement was in contrast to its original announcement in September, when it hailed Zoopla’s integration with Facebook Marketplace as “great news for our agent members”.
However, OnTheMarket made it clear that it has no plans to withdraw its properties.
Brand director John Milsom said: “We are very pleased to be a Facebook Marketplace listing partner.
“OnTheMarket is the UK’s agent-backed property portal with a mission to connect active property-seekers with its property-advertising agent customers.
“We see strong synergies between the quality of our agents’ property content and the integration with Facebook Marketplace.
“It gives our agents increased visibility to showcase their rental properties and we are continuing to work with Facebook Marketplace to create extra value for property-seekers and for both of our businesses.”
City analyst William Packer, of Exane BNP Parabas, said of Zooopla’s withdrawal: “This is a notable pivot.
“We view this as a small positive for Rightmove, as it reduces the risk of Facebook encroaching into the UK property portal space.
“It may also boost OnTheMarket’s share of traffic as they are likely to continue to co-operate with the Facebook venture.”
Separately, the Financial Times has reported that classified portal Scout24 is exploring a sale to a private equity backer three years after it listed.
The German firm specialises in property and car listings.
According to the Financial Times, a possible buyer is US equity firm Silver Lake, which bought ZPG for around £2bn earlier this year.
But Zoopla already emailed everyone last week to tell them this so not sure why this is so mysterious…
“We continually test and review initiatives and partnerships that we provide to our partners.
As of today, our trial phase of listing rental properties on Facebook Marketplace has ended.
From today, we’ll no longer list properties on Facebook Marketplace and you should no longer use any Zoopla marketing materials featuring the Facebook Marketplace brand. If you have hard copies, please recycle them or give them back to your Zoopla account manager.”
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Listing on Facebook is/was a bad idea for property. There is too much wrong with it and to many scammers, rogue agents and traders on it with no real way of controlling or regulating it. For this reason Zoopla have done the right thing. Facebook is over used already.
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Facebook is a disgrace.
Zuck will suck the life out of anything he can and make it his.
The last thing any industry should do is trust him/Facebook with any of their data.
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