A major regional chain has criticised OnTheMarket’s strategy aimed at damaging Zoopla, and says that the industry needs Zoopla to thrive.
Lyndon Bent, director of Bradleys in the west country which is not on OTM, said he favours the principle of an agency-owned portal but he said that the industry cannot afford to remove one of their key sales tools, and that “a strong Rightmove needs a strong competitor”.
Bent said: “As one of the leading independent agents in the South West and an active and enthusiastic supporter of the wider estate agency industry, we have watched with great interest as events have unfolded in the property portal market over the past two years.
“Instinctively, we support the idea of an industry owned portal. It makes sense to support this and of course we, like many others, were tempted by the idea. However we didn’t feel able to commit to Agents Mutual – why?
“The strategy of this project is a clear attempt to damage Zoopla; a website and team who in Bradleys’ view have done an excellent job over the past few years to emerge and present a genuine challenge to Rightmove. Why would we want to weaken a current challenger to the market leader?
“So why are we making our views public now? Well, you just have to look at today’s Purplebricks flotation to understand that the market is changing and as time -–inevitably – marches on, there will be further innovation in our sector.
“We believe that a high street estate agency such as ours has a lot to offer, particularly as we have been doing business online for many years, as well as providing the added value of additional services. If the industry galvanises and focuses on the positive aspects of our overall service, collectively we can see off any threat from newcomers.
“Agents appear to be intent on driving fees down in the face of the perceived threat. Frankly who will be able to offer the local service that our network can, and who has the network of contacts and potential buyers to ensure to achieve the best possible price?
“Is it rational to be spending time and money trying to build a property portal in the hope that it will somehow defend us from innovation? Anyone who read last week’s Treasury document will understand that the government is determined to see progress in our sector.
“A strong Rightmove needs a strong competitor. In our view Zoopla is that competitor, so why do anything to hold them back? There is still time for you to change your tack.”
The rational voice.
One does wonder what the average agent who signed up to Agents Mutual is thinking right now, despite all of the noises coming from Ian Springett.
It has failed to achieve its goal of weakening the duopoly, establishing itself as a credible competitor, controlling advertising costs or galvanising the industry – quite the opposite in fact!
Instead it is limping along with its salespeople undermining the mutual aspect by betraying those who invested early by offering new advertisers cheap or free-of-charge entry.
If it were a true mutual, Springett would have gone to his membership and said ‘guys, we are struggling to push on here, we need to change’, but of course he hasn’t, nor will he.
Did 90% vote for their current policy of offering £50 per month for new sign ups or anyone who cancels (who they deem worth saving).
The sooner this wolf shakes off its sheep’s clothing and morphs into the top end, exclusive property website it was always destined to become, the better it will be for the everyday agents who have been sucked into the rhetoric and false promises.
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the irony being, agents have done the hard part and win if they come off rightmove. Onthemarket was the answer…weak agents was the problem rip
he ir
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were the answer ,, sorry, predictive text… Wonder what Judas brings up…oh.. Scared agents
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There is a lot of good thought in this story but Mr Bent hasn’t considered that the adverse affects of Zoopla might outweigh the benefits of simply controlling Rightmove fee hikes which is all that it is realistically possible for any competitor to Rightmove to achieve.
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If I was Mr Bent’s teacher I would be asking: ‘Is this really all your own work?’
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Ah yes I do remember when Zoopla started getting traction in the market place; their fees fell as did Rightmove’s!!!
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No they didn’t. They started low and grew as they got traction and proved value, like any rational and sensible business.
OTM have started high with very low value and are dropping rates for newer, less committed joiners.
That is wrong and will backfire for them.
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They didn’t “prove” value, they simply befitted from an improved market that saw agents with a bigger marketing spend.
But your argument does back up my sarcasm and pours water on Lydons view that a stronger Zoopla would offer competition to Righmove. By your own admission, as Zoopla got stronger (and by that I mean they got more agents) they simply charged more, they made no influence on Rightmove’s price increases or intended meaningful competition, they simply wanted another bite of the same pie.
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Oh no they didn’t, Zoopla only gained proper traction in 2009 when they got hold of Thinkproperty and the captive uploading audience of Vebra, Core and CFP.
How anyone could take that sort of userbase to the point where an agent is pleading for agents to support them beggars belief and shouts very loudly why the decision to abandon Zoopla in favour of Rightmove was made by the lion’s share of AM agents.
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