Rightmove and Zoopla say they are taking down OTM properties at once

| Rosalind Renshaw

Both Rightmove and Zoopla have said that they are taking down properties very promptly where they are asked.

Eye contacted both portals after claims that agents’ properties are still appearing on both Rightmove and Zoopla, even when the agent has joined OnTheMarket.

For example, the Financial Times said that on Monday, Savills listings were appearing on Zoopla although it had stopped the data feed to the portal. Savills, a founding member of Agents’Mutual which launched OnTheMarket two days ago, has come off Zoopla, choosing Rightmove as its “one other portal”.

The FT quoted OTM as saying there was no “grace period”for its member agents to remove property details from a third portal.

OTM told the paper: “If members do not meet the commitments they will be in breach of contract and they will be removed from the portal if they have not instructed any of their other portals to remove their properties.”

Eye has also this week been told of instances where OTM agents’ properties still seem to be on Rightmove and Zoopla.

A spokesperson for Rightmove yesterday told us: “If an agent chooses not to renew their contract with Rightmove their properties are removed when the contract expires.

“If they ask for their properties to be taken off the site before the contract ends they will be removed by Rightmove on the date requested.”

A spokesperson for Zoopla said: “As soon as we receive instructions from members to remove their properties we do so with immediate effect. Any claims to the contrary are wholly false.”

While it remains far too early to start serious number-crunching, City analyst Jefferies – which acts as corporate broker for Zoopla – had a stab at it on Monday, as reported on Eye yesterday.

It said that: “We have searched the listings of all three portals across all 32 London boroughs for two and more bed residential properties for sale and rent: Zoopla currently displays 73,989 listings, OTM 9,243 and Rightmove 51,860.”

In fact, its full-length note to investors is rather more interesting than that, making clear that it may well have under-estimated Rightmove’s presence in London, because it did not take into account the fact that Rightmove limits search results to 1,000 if a large search area is selected.

In its longer version, Jefferies acknowledges this, saying: “We note that Rightmove limits its search results to 1,000 properties.” It reckons that Zoopla has lost no more than 9% of its London listings.

Yesterday, Zoopla had its second consecutive strong day on the stock market. The shares bounced by 20p, up 12%, ending at 190p.

Rightmove’s share price also rose strongly by 4%, closing up 93p at 2,440p.

Another big riser was Foxtons where following its trading update the shares put on 19p for an increase of almost 12% to close at 178p.

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22 Comments

  1. Trevor Gillham
    January 28, 2015 at 07:27

    If I were an agent and was a member of OTM I would not be too worried about sending multiple emails for my properties to come off, as long as i did the one email I have proof. Also, imagine the hassle when vendors and landlords see their properties have been removed, zoopla okay fair enough but Rightmove, I would be ****** and change agents.

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  2. ElTel
    January 28, 2015 at 08:21

    It seems the 'spoiler' tactics used by Z & RM by not removing properties on OTM launch day has had the desired effect of getting the 'damp squib' headlines seen in many of yesterday's financial press boosting both portals share price. Clever. Let's see what happens when stock is taken down – if it is – at the end of this week and OTM media promotion commences.

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    1. hardly impartial
      January 28, 2015 at 08:29

      There is a saying in the markets, distasteful as it may be. 'dead cat bounce' …..let's see how share price behaves now. Surely nobody with any sense should be judging OTM on day 1, let alone those with apparent responsibility to investors !

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      1. RealAgent
        January 28, 2015 at 08:50

        That did make me laugh, fabulous saying!

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      2. ringi
        January 28, 2015 at 09:40

        I looked, in the 3 areas I have properties, it is VERY different how many agents OTM has. I am unlikely to have to decide if I will change agents to avoid OMT for a few months, by then it should be clearly.

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        1. PeeBee
          January 31, 2015 at 13:58

          ringi

          Simple, really – choose the Agent THAT WORKS.

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    2. Robert May
      January 28, 2015 at 09:56

      Hello EITel, now you are posting again can I ask if you are part of the OTM marketing team? I was discussing your posts from Monday with another EYE contributor ( we have a wager running on whether I will get any communication from any AM agent in my area) and we put a side bet on guessing if you are working for AM.

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  3. calleb
    January 28, 2015 at 08:23

    2/3rds of agents (all the independents) in my town have come off Z and all instructions have been taken down..

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  4. RealAgent
    January 28, 2015 at 08:32

    I suspect that a few agents were like ourselves and had a run off period on our contracts in case OTM had been delayed for any reason. Z weren't difficult about removing the properties but despite switching off the feed to them on Monday, the properties were still advertised. When we contacted them they told us that they would stay until the contract date end unless we emailed support, which we did. We were told that these properties would "gradually" disappear of the next few days.

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    1. ringi
      January 28, 2015 at 09:42

      How can the tell if your feed is switch off, or if your computers are not working!

      What if they removed all properties when an agent whenever there was a problem with the feed!

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      1. RealAgent
        January 28, 2015 at 10:01

        Because they had our notice saying we wanted the properties removed on the 26th?! But in fairness I wasn't saying we were blameless in the procedure. What is interesting though is in our area, when our properties are removed hopefully today, OTM takes over as number 2 portal. Even more fascinating was the number of details requests yesterday for properties that had been on a while, I genuinely thought apart from a few agents looking at the site very few house buyers would have even heard about it this early on; seems they have!

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    2. Rayhan-GetAgent
      January 29, 2015 at 18:43

      So when you remove properties using <insert relevant software package here>, do they 'gradually' disappear? I would think it's up to you, not Zoopla, to remove your own properties. As someone who is pro-OTM, it seems self-defeating to give detractors (like online, self-service agents) reasons to dig at OTM.

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      1. PeeBee
        January 31, 2015 at 14:01

        "I would think it's up to you, not Zoopla, to remove your own properties." THAT, Sir, is why any digital offering you have to peddle is immediately weakened – you have no understanding of the product.

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  5. Paul H
    January 28, 2015 at 09:24

    If you want a reason why the TV & SEO campaign starts a week after launch then here it is. Z & RM have tried to disrupt the launch but the only people affected are those in the city mad enough to buy shares on the back of the Jefferies report. The week will give enough time to sort these issues out. We start for real on Monday!

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    1. smile please
      January 28, 2015 at 10:10

      Every business has a "Soft launch" to get the kinks out and one of the kinks for OTM was always going to be the other portals stock control. Good idea delaying the "Push" for a week so all sorted. As many reservations i may have with OTM the more i am seeing now its live the more impressed with it i am.

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  6. ringi
    January 28, 2015 at 09:38

    How can RightMove till when an agent does do their upload, if the link has failed, or if the agent wished all properties to be removed? Therefore if an agent just turns RH off the agents software thinking the properties will be removed from RM…

    This will take time to get sorted out.

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    1. Trevor Gillham
      January 28, 2015 at 11:14

      Quickest may is to make the status 'Invisible'.

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  7. GPL
    January 28, 2015 at 09:49

    I watch with interest the Zoopla Share Price rollercoaster… one thing for sure in my view… there are so many parties out there with a real vested interest in the share price going up or down! I must have a read at the regulations surrounding the information that is presented from Zoopla (and I presume any similar company) which impacts on their share price, I am extremely interested on what duty of care they have to respond in a clear, transparent and honest manner with credible detailed information that can be proved upon investigation… tough regulation, investigation surrounding any unusual share price activity should be a priority to ensure that no company or no one is manipulating information for financial gain.

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  8. wilko
    January 28, 2015 at 10:14

    Perhaps they could take off all the sold and completed properties that clutter up about 80% of their sites while they are clearing off OTM property?

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    1. Paul H
      January 28, 2015 at 10:29

      Nail on head Wilko. Not only that but i'm hearing stories of properties being listed that went under offer over a year ago. Now i'm not saying it's all Countrywides fault as perhaps it could be an issue with their software providers.

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  9. the message
    January 28, 2015 at 10:35

    Paul, I assume you work for OTM. A couple of questions i have, that I just cant get answers for. Why start with a national campaign when in many areas OTM just isnt strong enough? – bringing people to a site once is easy, getting them to ever come back after a disappointing experience is very very hard, and I fear 70-80-% of visitors to the site will leave disappointed if they come next week. I fear this is an ego led marketing campaign that will spend lots and deliver little – once you hire marketeers and give them a budget they love to spend it, rather than a slow steady approach. Doing research i know rightmove didnt do a TV ad for years, until they had built up enough of an inventory.
    Second – are we really going to advertise OTM in countrylife and the telegraph and the Mail? – these might be the papers that the founders of AM read, but is this really the basis of our launch?
    Finally, how are you all incentivsed? If you dont have stock, how are we hiring great people who want to work in a start up? RM and Z reps have told us you have poached their guys with huge payrises – again i fear you are burning through cash the way other start ups dont, because they can incentivise with stock.
    No ulterior motives to these questions, genuine concerns over launch plans and money seeping out.

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  10. Paul H
    January 28, 2015 at 10:36

    Breaking news guys and girls…Something very big is going down with this Jefferies report and the effect it's had on the market, a new rating has just been published by Panmure Gordon of SELL and a target figure of £130p.

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