Big week for portal rivals as Zoopla gives agency update

Zoopla is set to announce its latest total of agent members later this week.

Back in May Zoopla revealed that it had lost 16 per cent of its global members in the year to the end of March - including, critically, 23 per cent of its UK agency members, almost all of which had defected to OnTheMarket.

ZPG’s overall membership figure at that time was 16,076 which includes UK estate agency branches, new home developers, overseas agency branches and commercial agents paying subscriptions. 

Some industry speculation has suggested there will be another loss of agents to OnTheMarket this time, but with those losses having occured some months ago with more recent agency totals stabilising.

In May ZPG reported that the number of visits to Zoopla and Primelocation in the year to the end of March had actually increased from 240m to 265m over the previous 12 month period, notwithstanding the loss of agents.

Its revenue also increased 10 per cent from £38.3m to £42.0m, while operating profit rose 12 per cent from £16.2m to £18.2m.

The average revenue per advertiser - a key performance indicator for the group - rose from £301 to £340 over the year.

This week’s financial figures are expected to reflect ZPG’s expenditure on the acquisition of uSwitch, a leading price comparison website, in April.