Are UK Portals Really Losing Agents?
January 7, 2009 by Emma Sorensen
Last year Henry Pryor formed the Estate Agency Buying Group, to band together smaller estate agency firms in order to negotiate the best terms possible for 2009 with UK property portals. As we entered the new year, Pryor told propertyportalwatch.com that many agents are holding firm and not renewing contracts with the pay-to-list portals.
“I expect the bigger portals will loose around 2,500 to 3000 agents this year” says Henry Pryor. His Estate Agency Buying Group has had interest from over 4,800 agents.
“Neither The Digital Property Group (TDPG) or rightmove.co.uk has been prepared to negotiate either with groups of agents or individual firms. Many agents have lost patience with this approach and I expect that many will not be signing up in 2009. Many of these firms were original shareholders in primelocation.com and others have been loyal clients of both sites. This is the toughest market that most agents have ever experienced and they are having to look at all their overheads. Portals, like newspapers, have to realise that this is not a debate about the value that they may or may not bring to their clients but about trimming costs to ensure that they are able to help agents to survive the storm! This is not a market that will stand profiteering.”
Towards the end of 2008 several portals announced with great fanfare new or renewed agent signings. Pryor told propertyportalwatch.com:
“Although TDPG have trumpeted that they have been able to sign up Douglas & Gordon and Cluttons I don’t think that the other national firms will sign unless there is a significant lowering of expectations. Many smaller firms are so incensed by the arrogance that they feel has been shown that they have said that they will take their business elsewhere on principle. After all, in this market just how many enquiries are they going to miss if they cut their paid-for portal exposure by one or two? There are enough alternatives out there and if the portals that survive are able to justify charging higher rates to a firm who wants to rejoin then many estate agents are prepared to take that risk. It’s hard ball!”
It will take some months to ascertain if Pryor is correct, and to see if agents really do hold out and refuse to sign on with the portals. This, combined with the rise of free-to-list portals like globrix.com and propertylive.co.uk, and those with innovative ‘pay per lead’ models like propertyindex.com, means 2009 is shaping up to be another interesting year in the UK market.
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The other problem is traffic and the quality of responses – there simply aren’t the buyers out there looking to buy – those browsing at the moment are not serious buyers. Agents are better to look at what specialist portals are out there. For example high AB buyers looking for premium property are more likely to use a site like http://www.countrylife.co.uk which really targets the top end of the market – especially international buyers looking at London and the UK because of the weak pound.
Good day Henry – how are the pigs? Although recent polls have suggested that many Estate Agents are considering pulling out of Rightmove, this could be merely a smoke screen. Vendor’s are very observant and may be quietly displeased if their property is not marketed on Rightmove. Vendor’s will be quite happy to switch agents to Proactive & Co Estate Agents further along the road. Rightmove is here to stay unfortunately and will still be supported I feel by the survivors of the Property Industry. Latest prediction in one of the tabloids today is that this recession will take 15 years to fully recover from. Now that really is a frightening thought. Better keep up with the pig farming!