Agents' Mutual founder drops Rightmove, keeps Zoopla

Chestertons, one of the founding agencies behind Agents' Mutual, says it is going to drop Rightmove and remain advertising on Zoopla and Primelocation from next month.

The agency has 30 offices across London and a further 20 international branches spanning 11 countries and five continents.

Under rules set up by Chestertons and five other high-end agents who founded Agents' Mutual, the new portal starting on January 26 - to be called OnTheMarket - requires any agency advertising with it to also advertise with no more than one other major portal.

For many, like Chestertons, that means dropping a portal.

A statement from Chestertons says that it is widely acknowledged amongst the industry that Zoopla and its premium PrimeLocation website has taken substantial market share and is now the strongest performer in London.

We have looked carefully at data collated over the past 12 months and the numbers clearly show that our properties get more views and our clients get more leads from the Zoopla and PrimeLocation websites when compared to other property portals. Based on our analysis of the data, this was an easy choice for us says Robert Bartlett, Chestertons' chief executive.

On top of this, we have all been impressed with the speed at which Zoopla Property Group has been able to grow over the past few years and, from working closely with them over recent months, know them to be an exciting and dynamic partner that is always looking for new ways to improve its website and service offering he says, adding that the agency will work with Zoopla in 2015 and beyond.

Last month Bartlett told Estate Agent Today that his firm was, in any case, relying less on portals than in the past.

The Chestertons decision contrasts with that by another Agents' Mutual founding agency, Knight Frank, which last week announced that it was ditching Zoopla in favour of Rightmove.

So far there has been no announcement from the other four Agents' Mutual founding agencies - the London firms Douglas & Gordon and Glentree Estates, and the national high-end brands Savills and Strutt & Parker.