Eye’s survey also looked into costs charged by the “duopoly”.
Today, we analyse the basic rates being paid by agents.
Our survey reveals that the most common basic monthly rate paid to Rightmove is over £600 per office per month.
But there is a wide spread of charges paid to Zoopla, ranging from £100 to over £600 per month.
The survey highlights that Zoopla is on the whole cheaper than Rightmove. Also, as we understand it, Zoopla does not charge extra to list lettings.
The results also show that the huge majority of agents currently list on both Rightmove and Zoopla.
The large majority of responses to the Eye survey on property portal charges came from businesses, mostly with single offices, handling both sales and lettings (see next story for explanation).
The survey shows that Zoopla charges a wide range of fees from £100 per month upwards.
But while the majority of Rightmove clients who handle both sales and lettings are paying over £600 per month, some 35% pay less than that figure.
When it comes to sales-only businesses, there is more variation: 40.8% are paying Rightmove over £600 each month, but almost 60% are paying less: 32.2% are paying £500 to £600 and 28% are paying £400-£500.
The spread of Zoopla charges shows that sales-only businesses are most likely to be paying £300-£400 per month per branch (32.38%), but quite likely to be paying £200-£300 (27.62%), and reasonably likely to be paying £100-£200 (18.1%).
However, it is not out of the question that they pay £400-£500 (10.48%), less likely that they will pay £500-£600 (5.71%) and least likely that they will pay over £600 (2.86%).
Here is the analysis from our survey on the basic charges being paid. The wording in italics is Eye’s own commentary.
There will be more results from our analysis of your answers tomorrow.
SALES-ONLY BRANCHES
185 RESPONSES
91 came from the south of the country
41 came from the north of the country and Scotland
5 came from London
74.59% (138) are single branch operations
23.24% (43) have 2-5 branches
1.08% (2) have 6-10 branches
0.54% (1) has 11-25 branches
0.54% (1) has 51-100 branches
WHAT SINGLE SALES-ONLY BRANCHES ARE PAYING FOR BASIC LISTINGS:
RIGHTMOVE (125)
28% (35) pay £400-£500 per month
23.2% (29) pay £500-£600
40.8% (51) pay £600+
ZOOPLA (105)
18.1% (19) pay £100-£200
27.62% (29) pay £200-£300
32.38% (34) pay £300-£400
10.48% (11) pay £400-£500
5.71% (6) pay £500-£600
2.86% (2) pay £600+
This shows the great range of prices being paid and highlights the lack of fixed pricing.
LETTING-ONLY
176 RESPONSES
80 came from south of the country
32 from the north of England and Scotland
22 came from London
88.64% (156) are single branch
10.23% (18) has 2-5 branches
0.57% (1) has 6-10 branches
0.57% (1) has 26-50 branches
WHAT SINGLE-LETTING BRANCHES ARE PAYING FOR BASIC LISTINGS:
RIGHTMOVE (130)
12.31% (16) pay £200-£300
46.15% (60) pay £300-£400
26.92% (35) pay £400-£500
7.69% (10) pay £500-£600
3.85% (5) pay £600+
ZOOPLA (100)
14% (14) pay £100-£200
37% (37) pay £200-£300
33% (33) pay £300-£400
11% (11) pay £400-£500
3% (3) pay £500-£600
As with sales-only there is a significant percentage of responding firms which pay either a lot more or a lot less than the ‘middle ranges’.
LETTING + SALES BRANCHES
754 RESPONSES
309 came from south of the country
156 came from the north and Scotland
116 came from London
64.99% (490) are single branch
26.13% (197) has 2-5 branches
4.77% (36) has 6-10 branches
3.18% (24) has 11-25 branches
0.53% (4) has 26-50 branches
0.27% (2) has 51-100 branches
0.13% (1) has over 100 branches
WHAT SINGLE-LETTING + SALES BRANCHES ARE PAYING FOR BASIC LISTINGS:
RIGHTMOVE (435)
4.83% (21) pay £300-£400
11.26% (49) pay £400-£500
17.7% (77) pay £500-£600
64.37% (280) pay £600+
ZOOPLA (418)
8.37% (35) pay £100-£200
17.7% (74) pay £200-£300
22.73% (95) pay £300-£400
19.14% (80) pay £400-£500
13.88% (58) pay £500-£600
16.51% (69) pay £600+
Comments (19)
I have a friend locally who is currently on Zoopla not on RM. The local thought is that Zoopla will be the portal to drop. What happens now? Does my mate stick with Zoopla and take advantage of the heavily discounted card rate for Zoopla/ Northcliffe advertising.
Does he ditch Zoopla in favour of RM and if so what price discount is the RM rep likely to offer knowing the Agent has no choice. What is likely to happen to the cost of print advertising? I can see the smaller agents being given some real challenges in a market that locally isn't that great.
A good logical comment, and a real thinking point! 2015 and beyond will no doubt throw up some large challenges. I think one thing for sure agency is evolving quicker than ever and we will all face very big changes to our business models over the next couple of years.
I don't think it really matters .If it is a good property, at the correct price then local knowledge, agency professionalism coupled with advertising on either RM or Z should result in a satisfactory sale for the vendor.
Sorry Wilko that is a bit of a curved ball which I don't understand. If every property marketed by agents was a good property then you might have a point but with 50% of properties marketed making it through to commision due completion only half an Agents' stock is 'good'. This micro debate is not how each single property is marketed but the marketing strategy of a single portal agency.
For many joining and supporting AM doubles their portal spend and for a percentage of those agents supporting the cause without joining means switching portals. Those agents are being positioned between the preverbial rock and a hard place.
We know that RM and Z reps read this forum…..As a result of this article could you both please e mail Ros with your UK standard ratecards (plus prices of any add ons)….Failure to do so will, certainly in my mind, confirms my thoughts that Both the current duopoly charge "whatever they can get away with" which should be totally unacceptable to everyone who uses them.
I think from my very limited knowledge of how the reps work, they have a formula which takes into account How many agents are in the area, how many that use them and come up with a figure. I.E. if their market share is low in an area they will offer a better deal. If all or most agents are on the portal in that area they will get their top end price. They know in the competitive market you will join them sooner or later. I have never managed to get them to lower rates even when I found out agents in the area were paying a lesser fee. In my area every agent (close to 40) in a 2 mile square are on both portals and we are all paying the top end with prices differing by no more than £100 per month. The majority of which are leaving Z to join OTM but every single one is staying with RM and our prices for basic listing in the area is between £700 – £800 pcm
FYI that's NET of VAT not GROSS
Agents have the "charge what they can get away with" attitude also but I guess that's okay right? Agents can certainly do things cheaper but they choose not to, instead standing by the claim that their service is worth the money. One thing I constantly hear from Agents is that the cost of a portal is not relevant if it brings leads. Answer this honestly: Paying RM £1000 a month for 5 leads or paying OTM 200 a month for 1 lead which do you prefer?
Or to put it another way, feeling ripped off, scammed, and abused or retaining pride, dignity and paying a fair price.
Portal Person, You are like marmite to me! 1 Min I love what you have to say the next I hate what you are saying! – To be fair somebody with little agency experience may have your our look. You say agents can do things cheaper, How? We have rent, rates, tax liability, staff costs, vehicle costs, commissions to pay, advertising circa £1500 per month portals £350 per page per week in the paper, stationary, continually redeveloping branding, websites, backing charities, boards, updating tech, paying for bespoke broachers, software to run our business, licence and insurance, An average office costs 8 – 10k a month to run that's an average. An experienced team in a well run office can be 15 – 20k per month so you are looking at circa 100 – 200k easily to run an estate agents depending on how ambitious you are (these are not London prices either). Oh and we take on this burden without charging up front! I know you and others think we just get an office front and list online but there is far much more to it!
PP – you fail to take into account that mr landlord and mr vendor have (in most parts of the UK) a good choice of agents to choose from, not just two. Furthermore, agents get paid only on results. RM & Z get paid regardless.
Portal Person, in all seriousness can you not help out us agents? you are anonymous on a website and assuming you are not an MD of a major portal you have little to lose. Could I ask 1. How flexible is your rate card? 2. How best can we get a rep to lower the fees? Now i know this may be different across the country and which portal but why not help us out? Nobody knows who you work for, your company makes millions in profit each year how about throwing us a bone!
The problem is , Smile, that Portal Person doesn't know anything about the Estate Agency Industry…..so probably NOT the best person to ask.
I would have liked to see a better breakdown on the £600+ figures. I was paying Rightmove just short of £900 for sales only. It was at the point they sent us all bags of sweets along with marketing materials I told them to whistle as I felt it was a real insult that was what my money was being spent on. I now run zoopla only with sales and lettings for £360.
But we were only paying £300 for zoopla before quitting with them. They said they were increasing to £325 p/mth. You see this is it no transparency. We weren't on Findaproperty or Primelocation so our fees weren't merged when they all joined together. They are clearly, judging by this article out to "get what they can"….
I had been on a much cheaper rate with zoopla in the past for combined sales and lettings, if I remember rightly was approx £200 per month (inc vat). When I decided to choose to give rightmove a go I dropped zoopla because I couldn't afford to run with both as it was very early days of my business. There was a point when I ran with both, and at that point the zoopla prices went up. I had tried to have endless discussions with various members of the rightmove team about dropping the prices because I wasn't getting the leads I had expected and they were having none of it. I'm a tiny agent compared to the rest in my area and knowing that the majority of the others were paying around 80% less was so frustrating. I'm a home based "online agent" (no upfront fees-pay on completion like any other high street agent) and unfortunately I don't have the option to join OTM because of my "online" status. I wish OTM the best success but if everyone is going to be picking RM as their other portal, the prices will remain the same. Of course, the agents already on a low ratecard won't care too much of this but for everyone else that is getting screwed by them, I really think there needs to be some unity and a stand made against it.
Interesting to consider the percentage income that will be removed from The Duopoly by agents moving to OnTheMarket.com
So basically we all need to advise rm unless they charge us £350 for sales and lettings we give notice to quit
Nah…… far too much – £199 to £250 tops. If Z can RM can.