The investment by Savills into hybrid property firm YOPA will not affect Savills’ involvement with OnTheMarket.

Savills was one of the founder members of Agents’ Mutual and lists its properties on OTM – which bans online agents, including those describing themselves as hybrid.

A spokesperson for Savills told EYE: “As this is a investment rather than an acquisition, both companies will continue to operate entirely independently; therefore they will make their own choices regarding the property portals on which they choose to list.”

Separately, eMoov’s Russell Quirk said news of Savills’ investment in YOPA was a boost for the sector.

He said: “When a long-standing incumbent like Savills wakes up to the realisation that they must invest in such a disruptive proposition in order to prevent themselves from becoming obsolete, despite it being the antithesis of all they stand for in terms of high fees, then you know that the inflection point is on the horizon.

“You only have to look at the scale of growth in the sector to see why Savills have sat up and taken notice. I predict that the hybrid sector will account for at least 20% of all estate agency transactions by 2020, an increase from 5% currently.

“eMoov alone are now 130% bigger than this time last year and with a tech platform and a team that is leading the space. The future of the consumer property industry is set.”