OnTheMarket 'now listing over half the market’ - 550,000 properties

Another update from OnTheMarket this morning claims the portal is now listing over 550,000 UK residential property listings, in excess of half of the total market.

In a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange OTM claims it has approximately two-thirds of the equivalent listings carried by Zoopla, and over half those on Rightmove. 

It says that as of yesterday Zoopla stated on its website that it was listing 580,860 UK residential sales properties and 241,390 UK residential lettings properties, totalling 822,250. OTM quotes Rightmove’s annual report to say that it has “one million UK residential properties".

The figures for both Zoopla and Rightmove include direct listings from new home developers, a market segment which OnTheMarket is yet to focus on.

"The very strong and growing agent support for our proposition has enabled us to rapidly gain ground on the market share of property listings of our long-established key competitors” says Ian Springett, OTM’s chief executive officer.

“We remain committed to creating an agent-backed, full scale challenger portal that injects some much-needed competition into the property portals landscape by disrupting what has for too long been effectively a cosy duopoly."

The number of contracted agents with OTM has risen from 5,500 on February 9, when it listed with the stock exchange’s junior AIM market, to more than 9,500 now. 

OTM claims this constitutes approximately 51 per cent of UK residential estate and lettings agency branches - although some industry observers say many of the contracts are heavily discounted as the portal attempts to build a critical mass of business.