The Nottingham and Harrison Murray estate agencies - both owned by the Nottingham Building Society - have announced they are to join OnTheMarket.
The two brands have a total of 37 branches but they will not be required to ‘drop a portal’ to conform with OTM’s rule, as they currently use only Rightmove.
“It’s already established as a major portal and the website has been beautifully-designed to give consumers a pleasurable search experience. We believe OnTheMarket will continue to prosper as more agents come to realise that by joining this 100 per cent agent-owned and agent-controlled portal, this represents the best opportunity to regain control of their precious property data" says Su Snaith, head of estate agency for the two brands.
Ian Springett, chief executive of OTM, says he is looking forward to welcoming “many more new members throughout 2016 as our momentum continues to build."
The portal’s first anniversary falls on January 26 and since Christmas it has released testimonials from two directors of Agents’ Mutual and from Home Counties and London agents.
Last week it revealed that OTM’s office total for estate and letting agents had exceeded 6,500; this consisted of contracted agents and an undisclosed number who had signed non-binding letters of intent to join under contract should the portal succeed in securing 7,500 offices.
Some of the recent joiners are believed to have done so under temporary discounted fees.
The so-called Portal Wars of sniping between rival portals, mostly involving Zoopla and OnTheMarket, have intensified again.
Last week Zoopla reiterated its heavily consumer-focused approach by revealing that it was partnering the Ideal Home Show.
Today, Rightmove has confirmed the story we reported last week that it had set new records for visits over the festive period; page views on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day were up 22 per cent on 2014. On Boxing Day there were almost 31 million page views on the site, rising to 44 million on December 30.
Visits to Rightmove in the first working week of 2016 were up by 21 per cent on the same period in 2015.
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"Some are believed to be joining OTM on temporarily discounted fees" .. It looks very much like Ian is replacing estate agents leaving them at £300 a month with deals at £50 . Hardly growing the business . Also as these guys didn't advertise anywhere but Rightmove before is this really a win ?
Yep, nice bit of smoke and mirrors from Springett there. He must be taking lessons from our government.
Dropping from £300 a month to just £50 a month suggests desperation rather than the sign of a thriving business, doesn't it?
They aren't temporary low rates, they are permanent. A multi office firm that I know has been offered £50 per month for 2 years!
Can we find out the terms of this deal?
Some of the posters here are already suspecting that it is a heavily subsidised. Taking money from one agent and funding another is certainly not a mutual and certainly not sustainable.
However this taking from one to pay for another is exactly what the independents are doing to subsidise the games of Savoy's and Franklin Knicks.
A good branch boost for OTM just before its 1 year anniversary - that is undeniable. What is questionable though is how big a win this is..It seems they hadn't been using Zoopla for some time so it's not a straight swap.
So one of the primary reasons that the two estate agencies have chosen OTM is that it has a "beautifuly designed website?" Is that really the key here? If I were a seller or landlord with these agencies that's not what I would want to be hearing.
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