OnTheMarket boss Ian Springett has said that Rightmove is delivering 35% fewer leads per £100 of fees than it did in 2015.
He made the claim yesterday, speaking at the NAEA’s annual conference.
But afterwards, Rightmove said it had deliberately chosen to reduce the number of leads sent to agents, back in 2016, choosing to prioritise quality over volume.
Yesterday, Springett said that OTM has already disrupted the “duopoly” of Zoopla and Rightmove and is on track with agent backing to be able to deliver a genuine alternative.
He claimed that OTM has “dampened down” Zoopla’s price increases and that leads from Rightmove have been falling.
Using Rightmove’s full-year results in 2015, Springett said that Rightmove had provided an average of 210 leads per UK residential office per month.
In 2016 this fell to 195, and in 2017 fell again to 178.
Springett said that in 2015, every £100 spent by agents with Rightmove generated an average of 27.9 leads.
He told delegates that in the first half of 2018 this figure had reduced to an average of 18.1 – a 35% fall. For that period, Rightmove’s average revenue per advertiser (ARPA) was £987 whilst its average costs per advertiser were around £247 – a 75% profit margin.
For Zoopla, its full-year results for 2015 revealed that its leads per UK residential advertiser per month were an average of 136 while its half-year results for 2018 showed this figure had reduced to an average of 92.
Zoopla’s most recently published average revenue per partner was £359.
Springett told delegates: “The willingness of agents to switch away from Zoopla has meant their ability to increase prices has been curtailed.
“Agents have not so far been prepared to switch away from Rightmove which continues to push through substantial annual price increases despite the apparent decline in the value for money it delivers in terms of leads.
“In some cases, agents are paying Rightmove more than they are paying in rent for their office, so we are coming to a crunch point when we believe more and more agents are starting to seriously consider their options.”
Springett pointed to a Liberum report from as far back as April 2016 which stated that: “Rightmove’s Finance Director came in to brief our sales team. Management are fully focused on the current market opportunity where they believe £2,500/Month ARPA is a realistic medium/long term goal.”
Springett went on: “Aiming to increase agent costs to this extent shows that over time, there has been a separation in where the value of portals is created and where the ownership lies.
“Portals are reliant on agents not just for their revenue but also for the content that draws consumers to them.
“OnTheMarket aims to put portal ownership into the hands of agents who use it, to undercut Rightmove’s 75% profit margin, to deliver an exceptional user experience for consumers and to generate shareholder value.”
Springett said that OTM has made strides since its launch on the AIM stock market a year ago, with listings now over 80% of Zoopla’s stock, and about 60% of Rightmove’s.
OTM has grown to 12,500 contracted branches and is delivering more than seven times as many leads as a year ago.
He said: “Our progress to date and the encouraging support for an agent-backed portal give us confidence that we can continue to build on this early growth to develop a market-leading agent-backed portal.”
A spokesperson for Rightmove said last night: “Our focus is on delivering quality leads and brand awareness for our customers from the biggest and most engaged home hunting audience.
“In addition, we provide products to help agents win instructions, tools to help their business be more efficient, and training to help them grow their business.
“In 2016 we removed a tool on the site that let home hunters send one speculative enquiry to a number of agents in one go as we had a lot of feedback from agents saying that these leads were poor quality.
“This means that the leads agents receive are more relevant and better quality, as they are sent about a specific property listing.”
“Rightmove said it had deliberately chosen to reduce the number of leads sent to agents, back in 2016, choosing to prioritise quality over volume…. “
They are screening what they send us?!
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Surely it is the agents perogative to decide on what was quality, after all they paid through the nose for the info’/data.
Is R.M. really trying to say “We know you better than you.”
or Is it their “superiority complex syndrome” on display yet again?
More Shipside than Shipshape
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I find it amazing that Rightmove would even admit this. How dare they decide what leads are better quality than others. Who is deciding this at RM and is it fair across the board.
For example after this shocking admission is it possible that agents who have shares in RM would get priority for leads where leads have a house to sell.
With this screening there are going to be potential buyers who submit an enquiry, never hear from the agent thus presuming that the agent doesnt give a damn, I would say that this is a story PIE wants to delve into further….this is a complete scandal
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thats why it isnt true.We would have buyers calling and winging they hadnt heard from us.
also we get a lot of **** from them from people who ‘want more details’ …
They probably hold back valuation leads and give them to purplebricks.
they love pay any way agents and want to destroy their own customer base. – for some reason?
Also i hear spriggot is from russia and works for rightmove.
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Congratulations to Ian Springett for delivering, as always concise, clear facts at the NAEA conference. We have recently started using the early bird offering and it’s brilliant. Not least, our clients have an extended launch to the market by new property alerts running over two or three days which has created a greater response than usual. Any agent that has not joined onthemarket should consider the free trial on offer and shares still available with membership. I don’t think you will be disappointed. …And no I don’t work for onthemarket! I am however a shareholder and am just delivering a brilliant 5* review to onthemarket. They have achieved and are doing exactly what they said they would and I think onthemarket has risen to second position not that far behind rightmove. The other interesting point is that rightmove feel that they can charge more, yet their performance in audience has almost halved, so too the leads. You will be asked this question alot rightmove, so looking forward to your response as you have been too quiet for too long. You too are loved rightmove, but you do need to listen to your consumers before it becomes too late.
Theother point that surprised me is that 78% of agencies are independent, so if you (like me) thought you are too small to make a difference, you are not. If you are seriously inthemarket go to onthemarket!
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I am curious as to why you believe OTM ‘has risen to second position not that far behind rightmove.’ The facts and figures don’t support this at all. The last figures I saw were OTM 12500, ZOOPLA 16000, RIGHTMOVE 20,000. All approx. figures.
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“”They have achieved and are doing exactly what they said they would and I think onthemarket has risen to second position not that far behind rightmove””
Wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were supposed to have killed rightmove by now…what good is 2nd place after 3 years?? zoopla were 2nd place you deluded fool..( apologies for strong language but idiots like you are costing me a fortune in rightmove bills.
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That’s a bit vicious! OTM are excelling.
Not long ago we were told they would never get anywhere near Hoopla.
Keep up the great work Mr Springett.
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you clearly have not been at any single meeting. Otherwise you would understand why second position on the podium is important. I am sure Mr Springett would be happy to explain to an interested potential customer Bless You not
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“but idiots like you are costing me a fortune in rightmove bills”
Given you are the one that pays the bills each month, I’d respectively suggest it’s you that is the idiot.
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i am sure mr Springett will be happy to share the stats with anyone who is interested and if you are an agent an willing to listen and give someone (anyone) the time of day LOL
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I conducted a 6 month like for like trial at my agency between Rightmove, OTM and our own website/ Social Media activities. OTM had comparable numbers of property views, significantly more leads and, on a cost per lead basis* RM were also eye wateringly more expensive. Our social media and own website activities produced the most business for us in terms of new listings and comparable numbers of new viewings to OTM. On that basis and, in light of continued and unjustifiable annual 5-6 times times inflation price hikes, I took the decision to refuse to pay the last increase and am no longer on Rightmove.
Since publicly announcing that decision, I have not lost one client as a result and have seen no drop in listing appointments, new listing numbers or, the numbers of viewings. This comment from a new client is not untypicall and very telling.
“”I told (partners name) PDQ are the only agents I ever see on social media, LinkedIn and the like. I couldn’t give a stuff about Rightmove, these guys are the only ones who ever phone me”. A new client who is changing agents and listing with us next week (at 40% higher fee than current agent).
Rightmove offers a widely recognised platform but it has become complacent, greedy and arrogant. The power is with agents, not Rightmove.
*based on current OTM rates.
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until rightmove is dead.. we have no way of killing pay any way agents.
In penzance they are also allowing purplebricks to look like they have an office … its an 0121 (birminham number) with 2000 listings…
Rightmove are the worst.
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Chris your not listed on ‘agents in penzance’ with onThemarket??
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Thanks for highlighting this. Bless you Bless You.
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Was it a OTM or RM lead? or was it, a For Sale Sign, word of mouth or even a Newspaper advert lead YET rather frustratingly the person who wanted to know more just went on RM or OTM to get more info and RM and OTM are congratulated on passing on a lead? when in fact they were simply the communication route to us.
I am about to switch off the Rightmove number for recording calls. Get our ****** phone number in peoples pockets not promo the Rightmove whisper service.
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Newspaper advert??? When was the last time an agent advertisied there?
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I do, every week! Cheapest letter box mail drop out there.
Does it sell houses NO, but then neither does the internet!
50,000 letter boxes works out at about 000.18pence per drop… including delivery! Cheap!
Put any message you want in it or a page of property! the choice on how you make that page work! (if it does)
Honestly life outside of the thought process EVERYONE wants digital…. why not cater for both!
Measure if people look at your page: Get a page in the local offering free £20 notes (no catches) for one hour on Saturday afternoon between 2pm and 3pm if they come to one of your offices to collect the cash…. BET YOU a handsome sum you will have a busy hour that day and a few hundred quid down!
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Exactly right; where did the true source of the lead come from? The client probably already knew who you were, was registered with you already or dealt with you previously. FAO NewsBoy: Someone’s got to keep the papers afloat! 🙂
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NewsBoy will be back as NewsPaperBoy tomorrow… I will convert him/her.
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Just listened to RM lead from yesterday and in case RM are reading this and (they know who I am). 14/02/19 at 12:15 the chap says… I have been passed your number by someone as I believe you have some apartments for sale.
1. Did he forget / lose our number and search us down via Rightmove.
2. Did the person pass on the Rightmove GEO number we have thinking well that’s our number.
Number 2 as above is worrying… now the person wants to view these, so RM will say “a good lead” yet the call recorded by RM is as clear as it can be that the lead was a friend/colleague of his NOT Rightmove, he simple ended up on their phone number.
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geez…. 4 RM reps with a quiet day today LOL.
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I spoke to Miles Shipside at the conference about the 15-32% rises my office network is facing and the minimum 10% p.a. rises over last 10 years. I told him my staff and I would prefer to stay with Rightmove but such sheer, naked greed of this scale has brought a tipping point. After questions about our “package”, a means by which the arcane pricing can disguise fundamental increases, Miles was unable to offer much more than a shrug! For some such as me, when RM costs head towards 10% of sales turnover, that decision is being made for us. Everyone else I spoke to seemed to agree. Rightmove should finally show some respect for its customers who’ve helped its growth.
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Too late for respect, not sure how much more writing on the wall some agents need. We wanted more choice, we now have more choice.
I honestly believe that the days of running around your local Town/City saying “XYZ agents are not on RM, we are so you will sell quicker” are over. Quite simply you are going to make yourself sound unprofessional and reliant on one website as an agency, I welcome this and will use it against anybody enabling me to educate the public on how we and the times are moving on.
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If you want to be on RM you pay their price. If you do not want to be on RM, you don’t have to pay them anything. Simples.
I don’t blame Miles for shrugging. What do you want him to do? Go down on bended knee and beg forgiveness for building a hugely profitable business? Ain’t gonna happen, is it.
Pay or don’t. Your choice and yours alone.
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‘Unable to offer anything more than a shrug’, straight from the rightmove guide to customer service.
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Of course we all have a choice. Kill off Hoopla first and then move onto RM.
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YOUR listings.
YOUR data.
YOUR money.
THEIR rules.
Something doesn’t compute there. It doesn’t have to be that way…
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Nobody respects your opinions or perspectives PeeBee. You are an industry-wide joke!
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Sweeping generalisations are usually born of ignorance or fear and, almost always wrong. PeeBee may express his opinions bluntly to the point of brutally on occasion but, he is invariably right and always speaks honestly. I may not always agree with everything he says but, I respect him, his opinion and his right to express them.
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And here come’s the cavarly!
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Cavalry.
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Oi! What about us Cavarly eh?
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Lil Bandit
It looks like one person respects yours twelve times.
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Which naturally raises a question.
What is your ‘opinion and perspective’ on the subject article, Lil Bandit?
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Oh yes they do. I don’t know who you are but I would much rather listen to PeeBee. It would be great fun to hear your views on the subject.
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Is anyone keeping an independent, reliable and verifiable check on the number of branches listing with Rightmove over the past few months? I’m sure agents and PIE would be interested in comparing comments on a forum with action on the ground. I believe many agents have or are in the process of quitting but, verifiable independent data is the gold standard.
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Great info Ian, clear, concise …..unusual for you however credit due!
Now, instead of delivering it to the Dinosaurs Institute that is the NAEA?
……sorry, remind me! …..when do we hear hardhitting/positive/proactive media info from the NAEA on behalf of Our Industry? ……Nope, just please pay your Annual Membership Fees
…..Ian, deliver it across the media/consumer/platforms and drive the OTM Brand consistently……a rallying call is great, even at a Dinosaur Convention ….however take your OTM Message to the biggest audience possible.
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https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/SQT9YJP
I’ve decided to run a survey, it would be great to get as many people to do it as possible. Both those that support Rightmove and those that don’t.
Please feel free to share with estate agent friends.
The results will be viewable at the end of the survey once you have completed it.
Cheers,
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