Zoopla is withdrawing its lettings listings from Facebook Marketplace, only three months after putting them on.

Officially the withdrawal takes place this coming weekend but many of the listings have already disappeared and the rest are likely to follow suit in the next 24 hours.

The Marketplace service allows consumers to search for properties via Facebook and has been successful as a property sales and rentals forum in the US.

In September ZPG announced that almost 300,000 listings from its Zoopla and PrimeLocation portals would go on to Facebook but a reliable source has told Letting Agent Today that the U-turn has been made in a bid to protect letting agents’ interests.

It was thought there was concern that individual landlords and property owners using Facebook Marketplace could dilute the involvement and impact of agents’ listings – hence the decision to withdraw.

In September – when both Zoopla and OnTheMarket started putting lettings listings on Facebook on the same day – Zoopla Property Services managing director Charlie Bryant said: “This is great news for our agent members who will now get wider distribution of their listings as well as increased brand exposure with people looking for property to rent on Facebook Marketplace.”

Since then TheHouseShop, a listings platform that takes advertising from individual landlords and sellers as well as from agents, has also advertised its listings on Facebook Marketplace.