Digital Property Group subscriptions to rise "for some agents"

The Digital Property Group, owners of Primelocation and FindaProperty, have revealed that their new system of charging – which involves mandatory listing properties on all their sites – will mean a price increase for some and a reduction for others.

One London agent told Estate Agent Today that his fees had gone up since it became ‘mandatory’ to list on both Primelocation and FindaProperty, or to leave. He claimed that FindaProperty subscribers could find their subscriptions are being hiked by up to 200%, and he said he had been told that FindaProperty had been under-priced and subsidised by Primelocation. He said he had been told that if he refused to list his properties on all the sites, he could not list them at all.

However, this morning, the organisation, owned by the Daily Mail group, denied it was forcing its agents to list on all its portals.

In a statement, it said: “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.”

Sam Reynolds, trade marketing manager, said: “The benefit to agents is that properties will attract different types of buyer through each of our portals. For example, a newly built £250,000 one-bedroom apartment in London listed with the Digital Property Group may attract a first-time buyer through FindaProperty and an investment or pied-a-terre purchaser through Primelocation.

“It may also attract home buyers who only want to buy a new build property through FindaNewHome as well as home buying readers of the Evening Standard through Homesandproperty

 “We are currently rolling out this expanded offering to our existing customers and introducing our new value-based model of charging. 

“The model takes into account the agent’s location as well as the number of properties listed and their average value, to calculate a fair and competitive price. In short, the fee they will be charged moving forwards will reflect the potential value that our service can offer to an agent’s business. In some cases this will lead to a price increase and in others it has already meant a reduction in fees.”