Multi-office agencies Stirling Ackroyd, Statons, Alex Neil and Cheffins are amongst those agents which have left OnTheMarket and returned to Zoopla according to a tracking exercise of the major portals conducted by online estate agency eMoov.
"After the initial rush to join Onthemarket.com earlier in the year, their growth appears to be stagnating with little or no increase in membership numbers over the last couple of months" according to a statement from eMoov.
It continues: "The reality appears to be setting in for its members as a number of notable names have quit OTM to return to Zoopla.co.uk (ZPG), including multi-office agencies like Stirling Ackroyd, Statons, Alex Neil and Cheffins amongst others."
Meanwhile eMoov, which this week handsomely exceeded its original £1m crowdfunding pitch and successfully raised £2m, says the growth of online agents generally "is flying". The company itself has seen a 50 per cent increase in instructions so far this year over the same period of 2014.
“The service being offered by online agents is clearly being embraced by sellers who can see the benefits, which include lower costs and wider marketing versus OTM agents. To some extent we and other online agents owe a debt of gratitude to Ian Springett and his 'one other portal' rule, which has given us a clear USP and has made winning instructions against his members far easier” says eMoov founder and chief executive Russell Quirk.
He says one vendor - marketing a London property through a High Street agency and OnTheMarket - has also chosen to list with eMoov because that gives access to Zoopla as well as Rightmove.
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If you check OTM listings in London it has only 1,000 properties vs 10,000+ for Zoopla (Multiply no. of listings per page by no. of pages). Surely this is the safest test yet in this propaganda war between the portals. Considering the OTM founders are all London based agents you'd think they'd have a greater share. It seems the reality is they are a long long way away from catching Zoopla.
The irony is that the big boys don't really care about being on zoopla. they're saving wads of cash, and hey, if this OTM thing works out, great, if not, who cares. Valuable leads come from rightmove and their own website anyway. Unless your 20 branches plus you will still care about the volume coming from zoopla. quality comes from RM...
Good points.
Why are eMoov doing this? They can't get on OTM anyway so why should they care? Oh yes, it's just to get more column inches and throw in a reference to online agencies' supposed success. It seems a bit OTT that eMoov are essentially doing Z's PR job on this. Have these agencies definitely quit? Where is the confirmation from Z or OTM? Maybe they've been 'testing' leads/enquiries etc?
Yep, I think that much is clear. For all the talk and bluster, OTM really aren't pulling up trees in the way they'd like us to think.
Their supporters say "we're still here!" as a defence against any criticism, as if just still existing (only 7 or 8 months after they've launched) is some kind of achievement.
It's too early to judge still, but the signs aren't good for OTM. The writing seems like it's on the wall. There has obviously been a lot of propaganda on both sides - and it's pretty clear that eMoov have a bit of an axe to grind over the admittedly petty no online agents rule - but some of the more avid OTM supporters seem completely blinded by loyalty and can't see what it is actually playing out in front of them.
Sorry, that was supposed to be a reply to JC. Reply function not working?
I know for sure, that one of those agents mentioned are with OTM and are waiting for their six month notice to expire so OTM can make the properties "live" again. I have no allegiances to either as I am not with either of those two yet, but the vitriol being deployed by emoov is absurdly funny.
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