Scotland needs its independence – at least as far as property portals are concerned.

The claim has come from Thomas Ashdown, founder of Citylets.

He said many of Scotland’s largest independent letting agents have re-committed to Citylets with new two- and three-year contracts.

This is despite opposition from the likes of Lettingweb, a Scottish website that partners with Zoopla, so that any Scottish letting agent uploading properties to Lettingweb also has its properties listed on Zoopla.

But Ashdown said: “In some ways it would have been all too easy to cosy up to the big brands offering partnership deals, to represent them and act as a conduit for Scottish agent listings.

“However, it is apparent to anyone who understands the dynamics of content distribution that this would have been likely short lived and destructive to the Scottish lettings industry long term.

“To partner and distribute listings to large sites worth a billion pounds or more is to deploy their brands to the local area and this threatens the one thing that keeps Scotland distinct – property portal choice.

“The Scottish portal market has functioned very well for agents for over a decade and it is not for any portal to jeopardise that and introduce risk to its agents.”

Ashdown said that his latest signings underline Citylets’ position as a successful, independent site.

In comparison with Rightmove, he said Citylets still has around four times the number of clients in Scotland’s capital city. According to Google Analytics, it had over 4m site visitors last year.