Nearly ten years have passed since the creation of OnTheMarket (OTM), founded with the support of leading estate agencies such as Savills, Knight Frank, and Glentree Estates, with the goal of competing against major players like Rightmove and Zoopla.
OTM rolled out with a campaign worth millions in marketing funds and established strict rules, such as the ‘one other portal’ policy, which prevented member agents from advertising on both Rightmove and Zoopla. They also excluded online agents from their listings. These strategies aimed to carve out a larger market share, primarily at Zoopla’s expense, but some believe this actually ended up reinforcing Rightmove’s leading position.
As the third biggest portal in the UK for consumer traffic and agent engagement, OTM was hopeful it would overtake Zoopla by the end of 2016. This was seen as a step towards their broader goal of challenging Rightmove for the top spot.
However, OTM hasn’t managed to captivate the homebuyer market as hoped, nor has it been able to restore dominance to established high street agents.
While OTM hasn’t toppled Rightmove or Zoopla from their leading positions, the portal has made progress in the competitive market. With its recent acquisition by CoStar, OTM now feels it’s on track to become the leading property portal.
Jason Tebb, the chief executive of OTM, said: “We’re rapidly growing as a residential portal in the UK. Shortly after CoStar acquired the business, we began the first phase of a long-term plan to draw more users to OTM, which will in turn provide our agents with more valuable leads at reasonable and sustainable costs.”
He further stated, “With CoStar Group’s resources and expertise, we’re confident we can build the number one property portal in the UK.”
Tebb’s statement coincides with OTM’s announcement that more than 1,000 new estate agencies have joined, alongside an addition of 57,000 property listings since the takeover.
OTM also reports that, since the acquisition by CoStar, leads to agents and unique monthly visitors have each surged by 81% year-over-year. However, these numbers have not been independently confirmed by EYE.
More details and figures have been requested to shed light on OTM’s growth, however, there seem to be significant opportunities for OTM’s expansion with the support of CoStar.
