House prices mortgages inflation housing crisis zoopla.co.uk and rightmove.co.uk

House prices, mortgages inflation , housing crisis zoopla primelocation and rightmove , the list goes on my point ? topics all in the news and we've all heard on them. And not forgetting property the property developers who have been in the news also recently.

When you me or Joe Blogs , are looking to rent buy or sell a home , our first fast port of call is online

Whether it's Zoopla or Rightmove we start our property search here, to get a feel of what's out there.

which brings us all to the property industry spin and and counter spin of a tertiary property portal made up of the hoi polloi high end London concentric estate agency industry , whose last company accounts where Jan 2015 ( Next Accounts Due 31 October 2015 (11 months left )

Online estate agent emoov and its CEO Russell Quirk has queried whether a property website known as OnTheMarket[OTM] is running out of money.?

“We recently made the point that OTM had recently been trying to shift the emphasis away from traffic as it had become increasingly clear how the goals they had set and promises they had sold agents on were totally unrealistic.


“We also stated that they had been buying most of their traffic since launch which was unsustainable given how poor the engagement metrics on their website are.

“The shift away from focusing on its traffic is a clear indicator that OTM (and some of its most vocal defenders) do not understand the role of portals in the property market or the role of digital marketing in their businesses.

“Portals are a digital media channel, a means of connecting consumers and agents, which the large portals do well as they have huge audiences.

“Without an audience of meaningful size, what use is a portal, and if not focused on its traffic, then what use is OTM?

“Interestingly our prediction about OTM buying the majority of its traffic being unsustainable appears to have come true as they have significantly reduced their pay-per-click (PPC) activity recently and have seen a material drop in traffic as a result.

“The data speaks for itself and shows that the majority of visits to OTM are bought and raises obvious questions about the financial health of OTM.”

what you don't see the transparency in who is actual running albeit 9 current officers / 2 resignations one who mysteriously left earlier this year and seven of which have London addresses, a far cry from the national independent estate agents in onthemarket.com ?
Unlike zoopla and rightmove and emoov teams.

time to wake up Mr Springett, smell the coffee and admit defeat 

Ian Springett, CEO of OTM, who is allegedly on £500,000 a year and yet to prove his promise of becoming number two portal  in less than a month and half. which is contradictory to the agents mutual philosophy as a not-for-profit company and provides its online listing services at cost to members. 

He said: “OTM has conducted a substantial multi-million pound marketing campaign throughout the year and is working towards another heavyweight push in the coming weeks. Multimillion pound ? , so more money is being poured out of the its cash reserve. 


Marketing SpendZoopla Property Group in September appointed Goodstuff marketing agency to handle their £15m media account, more than the actual cash onthemarket.com have raised to set up their vanity project. Rightmove Spend on advertising products was up 20% on 2014 to £35.3m (2014: £29.4m)

“This is to ensure our targeting remains focused on attracting genuine property seekers to OTM.

“Yet again, these Hitwise figures understate what we know are the true number of visits to our website, which are tracked by Google Analytics, a market-leading website tool.

So why does Google Trends a global market leading website differ to what Ian Springlett says?

rightmove and zoopla remain top two property portals,house prices and rent have higher search frequency than othemarket.com 

“We would like to reassure Mr Quirk and any other detractor that we are not about to run out of money, and will not be turning to crowdfunding any time soon.”

onthemarket is actually crowd funded for all intents and purposes, because the monies have come from estate agents such as Savills and Knight Frank & small independent agents who operate outside of the capital. This goes against the grain of running the business from an office in one of the most expensive post codes  in London 1-3 Mount Street, London, W1K 3NB , it has created opportunities for the very, very few (Savilles, KF, Strutt) that 95% of its members will never benefit from – Country Life, Overseas.

OTM have agents signed upto  
 to  a 5 year contract.  Trevor Melham  ‎CEO at INEA  recently said "it may not hold up if OTM and its colluding operative AM are seen to be making rules that are anti competitive. As you know we have had emails sent to various INEA agents saying that they cant list with INEA which is mainly a B2B and voice to legislators.

When restraints are imposed on an open market, not only do agents suffer but also consumers. Lets hope the CMA act soon to rectify AM/OTM."

finally market research carried out by liberum shows the following :

Further Reading 


onthemarket.com OnTheMarket | Property, Houses & Flats for Sale

zoopla.co.uk and rightmove.co.uk primelocation.com subscriptions can be justified

Bonfire of a Vanity Project - The Worst Kept Secret in the UK Property Industry

It's all about the aptitude - Zoopla and Rightmove leading mobile property search

Zoopla Offers Members the Chance to Earn Additional Revenues with uSwitch

Why Transparency is very Important for the Start Up of a Business?

Upestates Online estate agency & will be expanding with 7 new offices in Birmingham Leicester & Nottingham

Online Agency sellmyhome.co.uk teams up with Property Detective to offer local API Data

property eCommerce is booming !

UK's biggest estate agent Countrywide sees shares plunge 12% as shortage of properties for sale hits profits

Countrywide PLC UKs largest Real Estate Agency - Alison Platt CEO Let The Battle Commence Online

The number of High Street real estate agency uk jobs slowing at a dramatic rate 5000 decline factors

Former Cricket Team Aces Join the Online EstateAgent business model thehomecloud.co.uk

Online Agency sellmyhome.co.uk teams up with Property Detective to offer local API Data

Top Chef Tony Singh sells house with the help of tech company Periscope

Housesimple.com online estate agent Vs Traditional Jamie Lester interview with Gaby Logan Radio 5

property eCommerce is booming !

Property Obudsman calls for property act ,50 % more lettings disputes , data also shows 25 % rise in online estateagents presence

easyproperty.com CEO Rob Ellice says 42 % of UK will soon be using Online Estate Agents