Rightmove has confirmed that a number of new entrants to the agency market have passed its vetting processes.
Eye asked Rightmove and Zoopla to comment on the new wave of entrants, including the cut-price, self-declared “disruptive” business models of Purplebricks.com, easyProperty and EstatesDirect.
Purplebricks.com has already launched and is backed by ex-Capita boss Paul Pindar; easyProperty, which has ex-Countrywide chairman Harry Hill as its chairman, has yet to do so; and EstatesDirect, set up two years ago, is relaunching with Poundland founder Steve Smith as chairman.
All three say they will be listing their properties on the main portals.
Rightmove would not discuss individual cases, but Matthew James, head of communications at Rightmove, said yesterday evening: “As the property market recovery continues, it’s no surprise to see people launching new ventures.
“In estate agency, we’ve seen more than 1,000 new joiners to Rightmove in the past year, all of whom are estate agents as defined by legislation on the basis of the services they provide.
“While we don’t comment on individual businesses, we have a strict vetting process in place to ensure all our members comply with our terms and conditions.
“As well as undergoing Rightmove’s new joiner vetting process, agents who cover a larger geographical area are also subject to a geographic pricing model, giving equivalent membership charges to agents with more locally based models.
“Interestingly, our research shows that both sellers and landlords welcome an agent with a local presence. While many may not actually visit the local office before instructing, our research reveals it to play an important role in assessing service and trust.”
For purely operational reasons, Zoopla was unable to respond to our request for information by the time this story was posted, but we will be giving its response in full when we receive it.
We also put the same question to new challenger portal Agents’ Mutual.
See next story.
What will be interesting is not so much how many new agents have joined, but how many existing agents have chosen not to renew. My understanding is that this figure is extremely low – but I suppose they would say that wouldn’t they. It seems however that many agents who have signed non binding letters of intent have a foot in both camps and are awaiting developments before fully committing. As such, is the size of commitment quite as high as suggested and if so, how committed are those who are included in the figures?
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”“As well as undergoing Rightmove’s new joiner vetting process, agents who cover a larger geographical area are also subject to a geographic pricing model, giving equivalent membership charges to agents with more locally based models.”
That is absolute bilge.
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Budget agents shouldnt be allowed in. Some show 100’s of listings that traditional (be they office based or online) agents miss out on for the enticer of sell for £295
I spoke to one agent earlier today who said that a landlord was now advertising on RM and Z so would he stop advertising on the big 2. RM and Z are killing the good agents in favour of budgets.
Alex Chesterman its reported also put a contribution towards £700k funds into a landlords website to market student lets. The site shows let from £0 zero. Its wrong
If a budget agent shows 100-200 listings on RM or Z then enquiries in will go to the budget agency. They’ll then offer £295 fees to more sellers that traditional agents may not get to take on.
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Gotta Gotta Agree with Wardy, what the chuff does that mean ?
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