There is a new kid on the block

January 25, 2015 by Rob Kahl

There is a new kid on the block. A new property portal is launched this week with the task of taking on rightmove.

www.onthemarket.com is available from 26/1 and is promising a clean, fresh and honest approach to marketing your home.

Many have tried and most have failed, whilst rightmove has become a behemoth website synonymous with looking for property on line almost like Hoover is to vacuum cleaners.

It is going to be an extremely big ask, but the new site has some serious backers and one very large advantage, the estate agents are well behind it.

Now I don’t expect many of you to feel sorry for us agents, but rightmove have had us by the short and curlies for many years. They are well aware that we have to market our properties with them as no other property portal comes close to the online hits they get and because of this they are forever hiking prices and basically holding agents to ransom.

www.onthemarket.com is actually owned by some very large international estate agents who have had enough and have decided to invest millions in setting up an alternative to rightmove for the public to use.

The clever thing is, is what the the people behind this site have done, is offer shares to estate agents. So, when the agents decide that they are going to market their properties with them, they have a vested interest in promoting the site.

All of this is well and good but the success of the site basically boils down to one thing; the amount of traffic that is generated. Whether the general public can be bothered to move from rightmove on to something new will dictate whether this site is a success or not. 

As you can expect, millions of pounds is being spent marketing the site with posters going up everywhere, a T.V advertising campaign and of course, the backing of the agents who will be pushing it hard.

I am a firm believer that competition is a good thing so for the users looking for properties and the people selling homes 2 strong property portals can only be a good thing.

Lets watch this space together!

Ths article is by Rob at Scott & Stapleton Estate Agents
Tel: 01702 47 11 55