Winkworth has been announced as the latest recruit to the new agent-owned property portal Agents’ Mutual.
It has joined the six founding agents – Douglas & Gordon, Savills, Knight Frank, Glentree Estates, Strutt & Parker and Chesterton Humberts – on the basis of one company, one member, one vote.
Led by Primelocation founder and ex-boss Ian Springett, Agents’ Mutual – not the final name of the portal itself – aims to break the Rightmove and Zoopla duopoly.
Dominic Agace, CEO of Winkworth, said: “There is a clear need in the portals market to create a new competitor that is owned and controlled by agents.
“The significant number of Winkworth offices that have signed up to Agents’ Mutual recognise this, together with the tangible benefits that it will bring in terms of cost and the ability to control their own property data.
“We are very excited to see this new portal as it develops and eventually launches.”
Winkworth operates from around 80 offices in London and across the UK, and also has offices abroad. It is listed on AIM at the stock exchange.
Its recruitment to Agents’ Mutual follows the announcement that London agents Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward have signed up alongside the founders, and will be represented on the board.
Springett, of Agents’ Mutual, said: “We are delighted to have this support. It further strengthens our progress both in London and around the country and helps underline our commitment to serving all agents in all segments of the residential property market.”
Comments
Here's my prediction for the future.
Rightmove will take the knowledge they have gleaned over the last 12 years, the agents who refuse to leave them and those agents who want to cut their overheads by going on line, and they will start to trade as an online estate agent.
They will do all this at the same time as opening up their portal to FSBO. They will pump vast amounts of cash into marketing themselves as the UK's largest online estate agent and inform the public they no longer need to deal with high street agents. This will make the hight street agent obsolete. Those who wish to survive will join the beast.
Then on the second day when machine gets upset, a problem that agents haven't foreseen as yet, there will be a blinding light and the world as you know will end in 2019.
Here endeth my prophecy.
I agree with ShockedAgent. This is a bad move. Rightmove and Zoopla aren't the bad guys here - they charge a decent amount - OK - but it is a lot less than we used to pay for print. We stopped all print at the beginning of this year and it has not hurt us one bit. I will not be stopping Rightmove or Zoopla though - they both provide good/better results for a lot less money than print. Our marketing expesne has gone down and results have gone up. Why do I need another protal in Mutual?
All of this is due to rightmove being too greedy. They have for too long taken the bully boy approach to their paying customers, pushing agents to the point where enough is enough.
Nice try shocked agent.
I give rightmove another two years and they'll be toast.
Cannot wait to see Rightmove fail, they have a business model that is on dodgy ground, as soon as they start losing agents they will be going down the drain, I think Ed realised that thats why he jumped ship.
Well done Winkworth - the myth perpetuated by 'shocked agen' may finally be exposed. The truth is people visit portals to find the best property - the portals don't determine what that property is. Rightmove are successful becuase they have every property listed - when they dont - things will change.
Do Winkworths and others not realise how damaging to their business this will be - coming off Rightmove or Primelocation or Zoopla? They clearly have not woken up to the digital age and it is defintely interesting to note that the leading group here is very much all the old boys - Flint, Bartlett, Jarman, Abrahmson. Decisions being made by people stuck in last century and who should have been put out to pasture long ago. We are located right next door to a Winkworths office so are dleighted by this news and will take a lot of marjet share from them as a result . That said long term these dinosaurs are going to force Rightmove to bypass us all and deal with consumer direct. Well done. Brilliant idea. Wake up - Agents Mutual is a stupid idea.