OnTheMarket’s shares giveaway wants agents to drop Big Two portals

OnTheMarket says it has another 32 million shares to give away to agents signing full fee contracts with the challenger portal - with extra shares for those who drop one or more of the big two portals, Rightmove and Zoopla.

This is despite the fact that OnTheMarket’s share price is only around 60p - well under half its original price when the portal launched on the London Stock Exchange.

A statement from OTM this morning says the contracts launched today will issue either £1,000 of welcome shares per office with flexible portal choices, or £2,500 of welcome shares per office if an agent commits to list exclusively with OnTheMarket for a minimum of 12 months.

It says that share calculations are based on a minimum share price of £1 at the time of share issuance and total shares available to each agent office are subject to a maximum of 6,000 shares. 

Joining in the deal is free until September 1 this year and agents will receive additional shares that equate to a percentage of the amount that they pay up until August 31 2022.

This percentage depends on how many other portals the agent lists with.

It is 50 per cent for periods of listing exclusively with OnTheMarket, 30 per cent for periods of listing on only one of Rightmove or Zoopla/Primelocation and 20 per cent for periods of listing on both Rightmove and Zoopla/Primelocation.

Agents will also receive a 10 per cent discount on their listing fees for periods of listing on only one of Rightmove or Zoopla/Primelocation and 20 per cent for periods of listing exclusively at OnTheMarket.

The minimum contract term is up to 31 August 2021, with one month’s notice thereafter, and annual fee increases are capped at RPI plus two per cent.