Record number of agents returning from OnTheMarket cl...

With the portal wars ratcheting up ahead of OnTheMarket’s first anniversary, Zoopla has revealed what it calls a “record number” of agents to have rejoined from OTM.

They include Whitehornes in south Yorkshire, Coast in Scotland, Hamilton Bowyer in Yorkshire and Pritchards in Bath. London agents returning to Zoopla include Keller Williams, Salter Rex and Haus Properties in London.

It describes this as a “record number” of returning agents.

Zoopla Property Group also says it has delivered record levels of appraisal leads to its agent members in 2015, up 42 per cent year-on-year.

The first two weeks of 2016 has seen the leads generated across ZPG increase a further 25 per cent on the same period last year.

“Vendors and landlords are increasingly using our websites to identify and select local agents. Though our unique products we help our members win more business and in the last two weeks alone have delivered instruction leads worth over £10m in potential fees to our member agents” says ZPG spokesman Lawrence Hall.

“Any agent who is not a member of ZPG is clearly missing out on valuable instruction leads which is no doubt why we are seeing many members return and we look forward to welcoming many more back in the coming weeks and months" he says.

It has become increasingly fashionable for portals to issue testimonials from member agents. Zoopla has issued a statement of this kind from Andy Robinson at Whitehornes in Yorkshire, who says:

"ZPG have been great in welcoming us back with a seamless transition. We have found the Zoopla team to be extremely passionate, enthusiastic and knowledgeable and the level of service and, most importantly, the quantity and quality of leads generated we have received since returning has been significantly greater than the competitor we have just left. We look forward to a long lasting professional relationship with ZPG."

Earlier today OnTheMarket issued a testimonial from a spokesman for Savills, one of the challenger portal’s founding agents. It claimed Savills has received as many leads from OTM as from Zoopla, and of a better quality.