The rivalry between Scottish portals continues with Citylets announcing that a raft of the country's independent letting agents have signed two and three year contracts.
Citylets says the signings - which include the Lomond Group, DJ Alexanders, Murray & Currie, Grant Management and Rent Locally - show that the portal is the most successful stand-alone Scottish lettings site, and it claims that is still has some four times the client numbers of Rightmove in Edinburgh.
This is despite challenges from, amongst others, Lettingweb, which earlier this year announced a part-mutualisation which will enable agents to own 50 per cent of the business in a bid to provide what it called a once in a lifetime opportunity for letting agents to take control of their own destiny.
Citylets founder and MD Thomas Ashdown says his portal's success is a clear message from agents that Scotland needs its own independent portals, and not merely operate as another region of the UK.
In some ways it would have been all too easy to cosy up to the big brands offering partnership deals, to represent them and act as a conduit for Scottish agent listings says Ashdown.
However it's apparent to anyone who understands the dynamics of content distribution that this would have been likely short lived and destructive to the Scottish lettings industry long term he believes.
The Scottish portal market has functioned very well for agents for over a decade and it is not for any portal to jeopardise that and introduce risk to its agents Ashdown warns.
He says Google Analytics figures show that Citylets grew 19 per cent in 2013 to reach over four million site visitors.
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