One of the agencies most active in the creation of OnTheMarket is trialling a return to listing on Zoopla after an absence of five years.
A report in the trade publication Prime Resi last evening stated: “Knight Frank trials ZPG listings after five-year hiatus ... [the] High-end agency follows KFH, Carter Jonas, Strutt & Parker and Humberts in making a return to Zoopla and Primelocation, after cutting ties over the launch of OnTheMarket in 2014.”
It is understood that Knight Frank will remain listing on Rightmove and OnTheMarket; no details of its Zoopla trial have been released, but last evening there were properties listed for sale and rent from 21 Knight Frank London offices from Aldgate to Wimbledon.
The first of the OTM founding agencies to return to Zoopla was thought to be Douglas & Gordon in February 2018, since which time many others have returned too.
Knight Frank's split with Zoopla came in 2014 - ahead of the early 2015 launch of OTM - when firms had to drop an existing portal to abide by the ‘one other portal’ rule imposed at the time by OnTheMarket.
Knight Frank and most agencies decided - apparently independently - to drop Zoopla.
An early board member of OnTheMarket was Noel Flint - at the time a partner at Knight Frank but now no longer with the agency.
He said on behalf of Knight Frank in a statement issued on December 12 2014: “Knight Frank has decided to continue utilising Rightmove in addition to OnTheMarket, the new property portal, which launches at the end of January. After consideration of the data available to us, we noted that Rightmove generates considerably more referrals to our website than its sole rival in the existing market, Zoopla.
“Feedback from our agents across the country also confirmed that Rightmove was the best choice available to us at this time and, most importantly, the best decision for our clients.
“The launch of OnTheMarket.com in the New Year is a significant step for the property market as the creation of a new portal will offer consumers more choice and challenge the existing duopoly.
“It is our belief that a property portal operated on a not-for-profit basis and existing purely to promote the properties from the best estate agencies can only benefit sellers and landlords while also offering the best entry point to the market.”
Since that time OnTheMarket has failed to dislodge Zoopla as number two portal, has floated on the London Stock Exchange instead of remaining a mutual, and has dropped its one other portal rule.
This morning OnTheMarket told Estate Agent Today that Knight Frank remained "a very strong and active backer" and that in 2018 it committed to list on OTM for five years.
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Zoopla seems to be much more relevant in London than where we are based. To be fair, it was never going to be easy unseating a giant such as Rightmove as it is so entrenched. However, I DO believe this will change in the not too distant future as I'm sensing an atmosphere of rebellion in the industry. We are currently considering dropping RM even though it is still giving us more leads than OTM, it costs us the same as a part time member of staff, which I believe we need more. We have seen a healthy increase in leads from OTM during our free trial and so will be signing up with them as a paying member soon. Despite the bad press it received during its introduction, I still believe OTM is our best/only chance of knocking our advertising costs down significantly at present, and as such it is crucial it succeeds.
It will be interesting to see if you do leave RM whether you still get the same level of leads, RM might be the first port of call but if the property isn't on there will they see it on OTM or Zoopla?
Hopefully so, I can see many dropping RM and taking the chance that this will be the case.
OTM is on it's way out. All it's doing is duplicating efforts and time chasing the exact same leads but less you are getting elsewhere.
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