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OnTheMarket Boss Says Portal Creates More Choice
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
OnTheMarket’s chief executive, Ian Springett, argues that the property portal is pro-competition.
He dismisses claims of cartel behaviour, saying: “The disruptive influence and service of OnTheMarket are positive pro-competitive.
OnTheMarket Boss Says Portal Creates More Choice
“With our launch, our members have created more choice for consumers and agents alike and are pursuing a longer-term strategy to prevent an unhealthy dominance and control of the portals market by just two firms.
“These two firms generate super profits on the back of the data provided by traditional estate agents and provide the essential platform on which an ever-growing number of online-only agents depend.”
Springett insists that the portal is here to stay, whatever the critics say. He identifies Russell Quirk and Zoopla as being the most vocal opponents.
He continues: “It is now nearly eight months since OnTheMarket.com was launched – 230 days to be precise – and in that time we have delivered rising traffic levels month-on-month and an increasing volume of quality leads for our member agents.
“Support for OnTheMarket is snowballing in terms of agent membership and property listings. Naturally, these impressive successes, which have already helped us to disrupt and transform the landscape of the portals market, have attracted the most relentless and strident criticism from those who would prefer the business to fail.
“Online-only agent Russell Quirk and Zoopla Property Group – which lost almost a quarter of its agents between the end of September 2014 and March 2015 – remain the most consistently vocal detractors.
“Given the scale of Zoopla’s losses of agent members and property listings and given the fact that Mr. Quirk’s agency is excluded from joining OnTheMarket, this remains unsurprising.”1
