Rightmove sees off threat from OnTheMarket.com as it increases market share
More proof Rightmove is rising above estate agent bickering, after research by analysts Liberum found it's grabbed market share from new rival OnTheMarket.com.
It was feared the property portal would be hit by the launch of OnTheMarket in January. One of the conditions of listing on the site, an estate agent-owned mutual designed to increase competition among property portals, is that members must choose between Rightmove and Zoopla if they want to post their listings elsewhere.
But today Liberum said OnTheMarket.com has lost market share, with prospective buyers turning instead to "other" property portals, while 53 per cent said they use Rightmove when they're buying homes. Meanwhile, Zoopla has lost share. To wit:
Source: Liberum
The analysts quote estate agent trainers Richard Rawlings and Bradley Payne, who last month wrote to the portal saying the Rightmove vs Zoopla rule "has led, not only to a decline in transactions, but also to a decline in new instructions because many people are not bringing their house to market (or are withdrawing it) simply because they do not believe they will find anywhere to buy".
"This has led to a vicious circle verging on a confidence crisis… buyers are simply not being exposed to the same number of properties that they would have seem pre-[OnTheMarket]."
That's bad news for OnTheMarket, but great news for Rightmove.
"We see very little incentive for estate agents to leave the clear market leader as the shift to online says continues," concludes Liberum.