Agents who are customers of the Property Software Group but do not use Zoopla will not be forced to adopt the portal.
City analysts were told this at a presentation yesterday morning following the announcement that Zoopla is acquiring PSG.
They were told that that there 5,000 “incremental” PSG customers with a 3,000 overlap with Zoopla.
Analyst William Packer, of Exane BNP Paribas, described the presentation as “confident”.
However, he said that “surprisingly” Zoopla gave no update on member numbers at the core portal business – 12,800 at the last update.
Nor, said Packer in a note to investors, did Zoopla claim an acceleration in agents returning from OnTheMarket.
Zoopla did however confirm its 11th consecutive month of agent growth.
Last September, Packer said that PSG had strategic appeal for the portals.
Mark Goddard, CEO of PSG, is to become CEO of Zoopla’s property services division – ie, of the property portals and also PSG.
Packer said: “We view Goddard as a strong hire, who will help Zoopla’s relations with the estate agency industry, which have at times been testy.”
PSG was previously the Guardian Property Services group. It was put up for sale by the Guardian in 2013 and, despite speculation that the business could pass into portal ownership, Goddard led the subsequent management buy-out.
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