'Four of top 100 agents on all three portals' claim

An analysis of Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket by Swiss bank UBS claims that four of what it describes as the UK’s ‘top 100’ estate agencies are listing on all three major portals.

This is despite OnTheMarket’s controversial ‘one other portal’ only rule. 

The UBS report - summarised here - analyses agency data collected since February 2015. Although this missed the launch of OnTheMarket, on January 26, it does include the 4,000 or so agents that have joined since.

The report states: “After the initial disruption from the creation of OnTheMarket, agent counts have stabilised. .... On the Market has set a rule that to be listed on its portal, an agent must drop either Rightmove or Zoopla. .... Zoopla has felt the larger impact from OTM's competition amongst the top 100, while Rightmove has been less affected.”

UBS says it will use this as a measurement when it analyses portals in the future - given the ongoing disputes between the portals over visits to their respective websites, this may be the industry’s most independent analysis of the sector.

“Since our collection began, there have not been material changes. Of the top 100 [agents], Rightmove has 95 per cent agents, Zoopla has 70 per cent and OntheMarket has 33 per cent. Of the top 50, Rightmove has 96 per cent agents, Zoopla has 80 per cent and OntheMarket has 30 per cent” says the report.

Then the report states: “We note that four agents in our top 100 have various branches listed with all three portals. There are also several instances in the top 100 where an agent is only listed on one of the three portals (though only one example in the top 50).”

UBS is not naming the four agents concerned.

The full report is here.