Zoopla Ltd Integrates its Websites

UK property portal and information website zoopla.co.uk will soon be integrated with propertyfinder.com, which Zoopla Limited acquired in August this year.
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UK Portal Traffic Decreases

According to the latest Nielsen and comScore averages, traffic to the Top 10 UK property portals was down 8% in April to 8.7 million combined unique website visitors from a figure of 9.5 million in March 2009.
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findaproperty Release UK Rental Index

With the rental market predicted to grow as sales drop, findaproperty.com has made a timely move and released a rigorous Rental Index.
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Digital Property Group’s Record Month

Hot on the heels of announcing increased traffic to findaproperty.com and the portal’s new marketing campaign, The Digital Property Group has revealed that its network of four property portals received a record high of over 4.42 million total unique visitors in January 2009. This is an increase on its highest previous figure of 3.76 million, and includes the highest ever traffic levels for findaproperty.com and findanewhome.com.

findaproperty.com saw 2.79 million unique visitors while findanewhome.com earned its title as the UK’s most visited new homes portal. primelocation.com saw 2,082,550 unique visitors – a figure only bettered when the market neared its peak during January – April 2007. homesandproperty.co.uk saw a 37% month-on-month increase to 629,473.

It’s not just traffic either – DPG say the company saw a total enquiry uplift of 53% between 01 – 10 January 2009 compared with the same period in February 2009, with sales telephone enquiries for primelocation.com rising by an impressive 197%. Intellitracker figures confirmed a total of 8,947,159 visits across The Digital Property Group sites in January.

Mark Milner, Chief Executive of The Digital Property Group, said of the record statistics:

“Welcoming over 4.42 million unique home buyers and renters to our portals is an extremely positive start to 2009. What is especially pleasing is this high performance is shared across all of our brands and will drive UK and International enquirers to our member agents from every level of home buyer and renter.”

“It has been widely reported that consumers are re-engaging with the property buying lifecycle in response to opportunities within every tier of today’s market. This increased interest in our websites is equally the result of long-term investment into each of our individual consumer brands and the value we deliver to our returning visitors. The Digital Property Group is independently recognised as a clear no.2 in the property portal market and we expect to keep making ground on the number one position.”

The ABCe report confirms Hitwise’s latest rankings which place DPG’s combined portals second, with a market share of 25.52% behind rightmove.co.uk who hold a mighty 40.40% market share, and ahead of propertyfinder.com who have 10.43% market share.

Prices Wars at findaproperty, primelocation

findaproperty.com and primelocation.com, both owned by the Digital Property Group, have revealed their new “value based” pricing structure.

The value based pricing model takes into account factors such as the agent’s location, number of properties advertised, and the average value of the properties. The company says the price of advertising on their portals will therefore better reflect the potential value they can offer to an agent’s business.

The main change seems to be that agents are being encouraged to advertise across all four of the websites owned by parent company Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND).

AND is the digital consumer division of the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). In addition to findaproperty.com and primelocation.com it also owns homesandproperty.co.uk and findanewhome.com.

Some reports say that advertising across all four portals is now mandatory, but the company have assured agents that they can still list on single portals.

Estate Agent Today have published comments from a statement from the company saying:

“Agents can continue to advertise on a single site if they wish to do so, while missing out on the proven value brought by advertising on all four portals.

“Being listed on FindaProperty, Primelocation, Homesandproperty and FindaNewHome helps member agents to reach wider audiences than ever before; connecting them with more than 3.7m consumers per month.”

The new price structure means listing properties on all four sites could effectively result in a price increase for some agents and a reduction for others.

The portal owners argue that keeping the websites separate keeps them focussed on their distinct markets, and that agents will benefit from advertising across all four, targeting different segments of the market.