Portals continue to square up for agents' listings

Zoopla, the house price information website, has launched its new agent listings service on a pay-per-lead basis, while free portal thinkproperty has announced major new signings as a result of dropping its charges.

Zoopla says it already has over 300,000 properties for sale and rent listed.

Agents will pay £1 for each buyer lead and £5 per vendor lead.

Launched 12 months ago, Zoopla has recently announced a further round of £3.75m
of investment from venture capital firms.

Zoopla claims to be currently in fifth place of most visited property portals, behind Rightmove, the Digital Property Group (which has four websites), Propertyfinder and Nestoria.

Meanwhile, with no sign of a let-up in the portal wars, thinkproperty has announced signing up over 1,000 new branches including several major property agency groups.

These include Hamptons International, Robinsons, Douglas & Gordon, Foxtons, Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward, Stags, Bond Oxborough Phillips, Clee Tompkinson Francis, Blundells, Ludlowthompson.com, Kings Group and D.B. Roberts.

All have joined since thinkproperty dropped its charges and made its site free. The site now says it has over 350,000 properties listed, and 6,400 agents.

Mark Goddard, managing director of thinkproperty’s parent company GMG Property Services Group, said: “Our free advertising model has shaken up the market and now agents have a credible alternative to the top two property portals who are charging agents an extortionate amount during this difficult trading period.”