OnTheMarket is now listing UK commercial properties to rent and for sale.
The portal says this is “closely aligned with its UK residential search and its overseas search” approach, as it does not carry “distracting advertising or any unnecessary information.”
The portal currently displays commercial properties of agents already listing residential units and this facility will be offered to all other firms listing on OTM until the end of 2017 at no additional cost.
Commercial properties listed with online agencies will not be listed, continuing the policy pursued by the portal on residential listings. However, it is breaking its own controversial ‘one other portal rule’ by saying this does not apply to commercial units.
Chief executive Ian Springett says he has been “actively encouraged” to launch this commercial service by many of OTM’s existing members.
The press release marking the launch admits that the residential portal market is still “overwhelmingly dominated” by two players [Rightmove and Zoopla].
At one time those behind OTM, which launched in January 2015, said it would by the end of its first year - over 10 months ago - displace Zoopla as the second residential portal; in some property industry outlets this week Springett is now quoted as saying OTM is “at an early stage of a long-term strategic journey to create a genuine alternative market-leading portal for agents and consumers alike.”
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Does the international/overseas channel actually exist??
Can't see many agents seeing this commercial channel as an added benefit of being an OTM member...
Is that desperation I can smell?
Oh dear, oh dear. Run out of residential properties to sell and let, I presume? Pretty embarrassing stuff leading up to the big 2nd anniversary. Will Springett and co be holding a party, I wonder?
Have to say, I see plenty of offices in and around London with the OTM logo on their office windows. Now someone like me, a bit of a property anorak with experience of working in the industry, knows exactly what the logo stands for, but your average passer-by on the street doesn't have a clue. They do, however, know exactly who and what RM and Zoopla are. That's the key difference.
And it's one that OTM are never going to overcome, commercial properties or no commercial properties.
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