OTM could lose agents 15% of clients - claim

A survey of 600 vendors by a consumer group says agents signing up to OntheMarket risk losing around 15 per cent of potential vendors - however, the biggest number of respondents are happy to let agents make their own decision on which portals to use.

The survey, by SellingUp.com, asks the question:

A major new property website called OnTheMarket.com is being launched this week as a rival to the two big established websites, Rightmove and Zoopla.

If the estate agent you had in mind to sell your home told you they planned to advertise

your property on OnTheMarket plus either Rightmove or Zoopla (listing on all three is not an option) which combination would you prefer

The answers from the 600 respondents were:

Rightmove and OTM: 32.78 per cent;

Zoopla and OTM: 13.14 per cent;

Neither - I would find a different agent that would list me on both Rightmove and Zoopla: 15.81 per cent;

Don't Mind - I would trust the agent to decide where to advertise: 38.27 per cent.

SellingUp's conclusion from the poll is that the 15 per cent potential client loss may not be a killer problem in a strong market but in a quiet period it could prove a serious blow to an agent's margins.

However, it says maybe they will be prepared to offset any lost business in the short term to make cost savings in the long term, while waiting for OTM's brand to build and for those vendors to no longer feel they have to be on both of the current big two portals.