Both Rightmove and Zoopla endured a bad day on the stock market yesterday.
Rightmove’s shares slumped 67p to finish the day at 2250p, a fall of almost 3%.
That actually represented something of a recovery as they had plummeted to 2190p earlier in the day.
Zoopla’s shares went down by 5.5p to end at 240p, a fall of 2.24%.
The falls happened after broker Citigroup said that investors may have under-estimated the potential disruption from Agent’s Mutual “which aims to damage incumbents by fragmenting the market”.
Citigroup downgraded Rightmove from “buy” to “sell” and was also cautious on Zoopla.
The broker also said that while the UK’s property market is in good health, it is “not clear that the online classifieds model will see a direct benefit from greater transaction volumes” because their revenues are largely subscription-based.
Conversely, Citigroup said that traditional print media would gain from increased transactions, and upgraded both Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror. Their share prices barely moved – by 0.06p and 1p respectively – but at least they did so in an upwards direction.
A comment in last night’s London Evening Standard said that the City had given “puffy” valuations of both Rightmove and Zoopla.
Here's a conundrum for those agents in greater London.Although Foxtons they've improved have improved their reputation in recent years they're still renowned by the general public as charging too much as well as having higher asking prices. At the same time their 50+ offices hold a huge amount of stock. So I wonder if agents and the city would see it as a good or bad thing if they announce that they have signed up to onthemarket?
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This is interesting. I spoke again with an Agents Mutual BDC yesterday and asked for the bang up to date Gold member office figures. As of 24th September they are as follows: Gold 1 = 1825, Gold 2 = 495, Gold 3 = 51. So the figures for committed agents' offices tends to indicate a dramatic slowdown of support for AM. This is the point I tried to make a couple of weeks ago. The AM train is being fuelled by propaganda and selective information, at odds with the actual committed support. They have added an insignificant number of gold members over the last couple of months and this is what worries me about the AM proposition. In my heart I want to support it but my head keeps screaming that it won't work…unfortunately the recent figures illustrate my point.
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"Gold 1 = 1825, Gold 2 = 495, Gold 3 = 51. So the figures for committed agents' offices tends to indicate a dramatic slowdown of support for AM. This is the point I tried to make a couple of weeks ago. The AM train is being fuelled by propaganda and selective information, at odds with the actual committed support."…..Just a thought but if Agents Mutual are trying to sign people up by smudging the figures and using 'propaganda' and 'selective information', why would they then tell you that there are only 2371 gold members, would the BDC not try to hid the information from you?
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My accusation is not aimed at AM staff, it is aimed at invested agents such as yourself.
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But this story was published by EYE not 'invested agents' unless your saying that EYE are pedalling propaganda?
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No, I was making a general point not referring specifically to this story. Having said that I think it's fair to say that EYE has a pro-AM leaning, although I don't think they necessarily cross the line. I refer to comments section posters such as yourself and others active on EAT. It wasn't so long ago that you stated I was a liar for relaying accurate sign-up figures. You then proceeded to state that you felt the gold signups are much more likely to be around 2900. This suggests you are either misinformed and ignorant to the facts or deliberately misleading others on here so that they are more likely to be persuaded to sign up. If it's the former you still owe me an apology, if it's the latter you owe everyone on here an apology…so which is it?
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Just goes to prove how little an american investment know about the British property market. Some little broker sat in his cubicle reading the paper and picked up on some elusive story about AM and thinks its going to be the end of RM and ZPL. What a prat.
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So, the slippery slope has started. I must admit I cannot understand ANYONE wanting to hold shares in RM or Zoopla. Not a good long term choice but there may well be short term gains.
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To upgrade Johnson Press is frankly staggering and only goes to show this broker has no idea about the workings of the UK property industry. How many of us anticipate an increase in local print media revenue? Our local title is hemorrhaging sales figures and with it advertising revenue on a monthly basis!
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No response as yet from the non AM collective on my point re the possible positive or negative impact should Foxtons sign up to Agents Mutual?
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IMO It would undoubtedly be a good thing for AM (at least in the short term) regardless of what the city or other agents think.
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I tend to agree, the amount of stock that will go to onthemarket from that one company will change the portal market considerably.
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Rivero….I have simply given "my" opinion on what I believe the gold sign up figures are but there is every possiblity that the gold member numbers could be less I state again that I have given an opinion and should not be used as fact-I do not work for Agents Mutual. Perhaps you can have an apology when you substantiate your claim that there is only 2371 gold members, you are the one claiming your figures to be fact and not me.
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You are missing the point, you shouldn't call someone a liar based on 'your opinion' (not sure what that means in the context of a discussion regarding figures anyway?). If you had proof to contradict my initial statement surrounding figures then you would be justified in labelling me a liar (though it would still be undignified), if you didn't then it is straightforward slander. I realise I am going over old ground but you might understand that it niggles somewhat when someone calls you a liar with absolutely no justification or evidence. Rather than me substantiating that I am NOT a liar, you should be able to substantiate that I am if you are calling me one, should you not? Anyway I probably shouldn't have brought it up again, it's like trying to reason with a Pineapple.
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"It's like trying to reason with a pineapple"….very good.
In other news apparently there are still 100 sign ups per week, rightmove and Zoopla shares are tumbling and it's been reported at recent Agents Mutual meetings of the numbers now being over 4000 . What can the non AM collective do next to stop the onthemarket juggernaut in its tracks?!
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""It's like trying to reason with a pineapple"….very good" – thanks. "there are still 100 sign ups per week" – Silver (i.e non-committed) maybe, not Gold. "rightmove and Zoopla shares are tumbling" – if 2.24 – 3% constitutes 'tumbling'. "onthemarket juggernaut" – more of a Sinclair C5 I'd say. Did you invest in that also Paul?
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Hey Rivero, I'm glad your in a jovial mood today although if your not too careful you may get accused of harming 'serious B2B' debate with your talk of Sinclair C5's. Although good to see that we have agreement on Foxtons.
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Indeed Paul, agreement between us is not impossible….oh and 'jovial' is my middle name.
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With respect to all of you. Us lot harping on about what is or isn't going to happen in the portal market is pointless. The public have no idea what AM is and those that I have spoken to about it, to favour opinion, don't care. All the public are interested in is what is needed to sell their house (please, nobody be a wise ass and say, "All that's needed is a good agent") and the public want to know that, as their agent, you will market their property on RM and ZPL. It may well be that we all end up having to market on all three, I know not possible yahdeeyah, we'll see! As soon as agents are losing heaps of instructions because they're not on the big two they will all be applying pressure to get AM to change their articles and if you don't already know it the portal is going to be well controlled by the select few (you know who they are) who will quickly move the goal posts and before you know it you'll be paying for three portals. Great time to buy RM or ZPL shares if you ask me. And yes I am an agent with no allegiance to any portal. I know the agents in my area are all sitting on the fence and I know a good majority are all waiting to see who goes onto OTM so they can exploit their position. I bet the corporates are rubbing their hands together and just waiting for their instruction surge in the new year. If you work the markets heres a punt for you buy Countrywide shares now while they are reasonably low, take a short view and sell around March next year, see how much money you make, interestingly all the CW Directors are buying shares at the moment!!!
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You are right – we Countrywide Agents are rubbing our hands with glee and can't wait until OTM gives even more of a marketing advantage on MAs than is the case even at present! 🙂
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haha….. another cracker.
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It's no surprise that the duopoly shares are coming down. There revenues are due to be hit significantly come January, we know that. Share prices also rely on companies being able to show evidence that they can continue to increase revenues or provide alternative revenue streams, which I don't think either of the duopoly are able to do at the moment……Having heard the MD of Zoopla state at digital property live on Monday that "selling property will always be a human, face to face experience, with the portals only providing marketing assistance" I fail to see why he lets online agencies on the site. Completely hypocritical in my view……….and lets not forget the fact that RM are happily selling applicants that registered with them for YOUR property directly to your competition for money……..I'm comfortable with OTM with or without everyones support. There are enough gold members committed for enough years for OTM not to be a flash in the pan, and for me I'll be pleased that we can offer something different ie Rightmove and OTM. A bit like when agents got the edge with RM PLUS Z,PL,FAP etc. If it's new, fresh and innovative then that's what customers want…….at least that was the messages from Zoopla Digital Live show on Monday!
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Blimey, as of 3.14pm today Zoopla have had 5.84% and Rightmove 3.59% wiped off their share prices! Looks like this Citigroup analyst may be on to something.
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Yeah that's right, buy RM shares then when as you say they will fall. Give it 6 months and they will be at an all time high when everyone realises you can't run a website on hopes and dreams and a few ha'pennys, which in terms of what RM and ZPL have it is. I would think the total investment raised by AM so far wouldn't pay for a RM or ZPL tv campaign let alone all the rest. The public will decide by who they give their instructions too, those that are supporting AM will have to come off RM or ZPL and leave the door open for those agents offering the vendor what they want !!!
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"I would think the total investment raised by AM so far wouldn't pay for a RM or ZPL tv campaign let alone all the rest."…How much have they raised then?
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