Zoopla claims rise in the property portal stakes

One of the latest entrants to the property portal market, controversial Zoopla, claims it has become the fastest growing website in that market.

Zoopla was originally launched as a house price information service for consumers but is now recruiting agents to a pay-per-lead advertising proposition. It is also believed to be about to launch an AVM, and has just announced the recruitment of Mark Witherspoon as strategic development director. Witherspoon was formerly with AVM and property price information analyst Hometrack, but left abruptly. Zoopla is currently being challenged over the legality of a feature on its site which allows consumers to say what price they would consider selling their home for. AHIPP says this breaches HIP legislation, although Zoopla denies this interpretation.

Putting figures together from independent analysts Nielsen and comScore, Zoopla says that its unique visitors in March were up almost 10% on the month before.

It says it recorded a 26.2% increase in website traffic month-on-month.

The Top 10 UK property portal rankings, compiled by averaging figures from Nielsen and comScore, show Rightmove in first place, followed by Digital’s portals and, in third place, Propertyfinder. Nestoria is next, followed by Zoopla, Trovit Homes and Globrix.

The final three in the top ten are Trinity Mirror’s property websites, then Fish4Homes and Home.

Altogether, the ten had increased traffic of nearly10% in March, compared with February.

Alex Chesterman, Zoopla’s chief executive, said: “March was a great month for us with property searches conducted on our website now exceeding over one per second.”