At last, after some four years from a Eureka moment to reality this long awaited agent owned property portal has been launched.
In July 2011 a salesman from Zoopla came to me and asked for a 50% annual increase in costs. I thought he was joking and I may have misheard him. It was true. He left and I decided to gather 20 of the most influential agents in the UK to a secret meeting in a private room of Zafferano Restaurant in Central London in order to hatch the ‘Grand Plan’!
I told them that in contrast to the Chinese who were planning for the next 50 years agents, by way of contrast, were only concerned for the next three months. They asked me what I suggested and I told them an agent owned portal not for re-sale. There was unanimous agreement and from that meeting a board was formed and the CEO Ian Springett appointed.
At last, and not before time, the portal has been launched with great aplomb. It is simple with a notable absence of irritating and ‘tacky’ pop-ups and adverts and has greater definition imagery across all formats. We hope that not only will this be the definitive portal for residential property in the UK, with the freshest and largest selection of properties anywhere on-line, but a truly pleasurable experience for the consumer.
Despite being ‘newborn’ it has already captured 25% of the estate agent market.
With the two existing portals worth billions enjoying a duopoly position in the market place this is a real ‘David and Goliath’ contest that the agents look set to win.
Hallelujah, the agents ‘brethren’ having woken up and ‘smelt the coffee’ and they now have a magnificent site that will serve the consumers needs for the 21st Century and allow them to control their destiny and shape their future.
Despite the highly competitive environment between estate agents themselves in the UK they have produced some very competent ‘collectives’ i.e. London Magazine, Fabric and Primelocation (now part of Zoopla). This is a demonstration to the big media groups that agents can do the job just as well, if not better. Three cheers for the estate agents industry for this show of solidarity.
Written by Trevor Abrahmsohn.