TIDMOTMP
OnTheMarket plc
16 February 2018
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16 February 2018
OnTheMarket Sees Encouraging Early Support from Agents
OnTheMarket plc ("OnTheMarket"), the agent-backed company which
operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, is pleased to
announce that after five days of trading on AIM, agent support for
its portal has been extremely encouraging.
OnTheMarket's sales teams have been presenting to independent
estate agency firms the strategic benefits of a more robustly
funded agent-backed portal, together with specific listing
propositions. The overwhelming majority of firms seen have
responded very positively with a view to listing at
OnTheMarket.com. The team had already signed up 81 new listing
agreements by 5pm yesterday, and there are a significant number of
further listing agreements expected to be received as a result of
those meetings.
This is in line with the Company's strategy to grow
substantially the core customer base of estate and lettings agents,
whose role in the property portals market is to provide the portal
operators with both revenue and property listings content.
There is a strong pipeline of sales team appointments booked
over the coming weeks with agent firms that have expressed a
positive interest in the agent-backed model of OnTheMarket and in
joining OnTheMarket.com. In addition, the management is in
discussion with selected key agents with a view to them entering
into long term agreements to list properties in return for becoming
shareholders in the Company.
The Company announced previously that it intended to increase
four-fold the sales and agent customer relationship team and has
already expanded the sales team by 50%.
The estate agent market is made up of around 18,000 branches and
the Directors believe that OnTheMarket.com carried around a third
of UK residential property listings at the time of Admission. This
market is highly fragmented and highly local in nature: the
Directors believe that over 80% of UK estate and lettings agent
firms are made up of between one and three branches.
The Company's locally-based field sales team has been
concentrating resource in the first week after Admission on
generating new listings agreements from this fragmented sector of
the market.
The core proposition of the business remains the creation of an
agent-backed, full-scale property portal to disrupt what is
otherwise a duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla by offering a premier
search experience to consumers whilst charging sustainably fair
prices to agents.
Yesterday the Company announced that butters john bee, a firm
with 18 offices across Shropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and the
West Midlands, is also now advertising its properties at
OnTheMarket.com.
As announced on 14 February 2018, Arun Estates, the largest
independent estate agency in South East England, has already begun
displaying its properties from its 100+ offices at OnTheMarket.com,
as part of a 5-year listing agreement which had been conditional on
Admission to AIM.
Last year, OnTheMarket announced that Chancellors Group and
Hunters had also signed new long-term listing agreements with
OnTheMarket.com, conditional on the Admission to AIM of OnTheMarket
plc, and the properties of their aggregate 250 offices are expected
to list shortly.
Ian Springett, Chief Executive Officer of OnTheMarket, said:
"The level of agent interest on the ground for the OnTheMarket
proposition has been extremely encouraging, not least in terms of
the number of offices which have already signed a contract with
OnTheMarket during our first week of recruitment and selling.
"The estate agent sector is highly local in character and early
indications are that we are on track in terms of creating local
momentum in the marketplace up and down the UK.
"The more agents who join now, the more we believe all agents
and property-seekers will benefit in terms of the increased
property stock at OnTheMarket.com. We are focused on reaching out
to agent firms across the country which can see the disruptive
appeal of our proposition of sustainable fair pricing from an
agent-backed portal. We aim to build rapidly on this early momentum
as a key step towards becoming a full scale competitor to the
market-leading portals."
For further information, please contact:
OnTheMarket 0207 930 0777
Ian Springett, CEO
Clive Beattie, CFO
TB Cardew (Financial PR adviser) 0207 930 0777
Ed Orlebar or Tom Allison
07738 724 630 or 07789 998 020
Key milestones for OnTheMarket:
-- 16 February 2018: 81 new listing agreements signed since IPO
-- 15 February 2018: 18-branch butters john bee already
displayed at OnTheMarket.com in 5-year agreement
-- 14 February 2018: Arun Estates 100+ branches already
advertised at OnTheMarket.com in 5-year agreement
-- 9 February 2018: OnTheMarket plc is admitted to the AIM
market of the London Stock Exchange for its first day of dealings,
having raised GBP30 million
-- 1 December 2017: Hunters Property Group enters a long-term
strategic partnership with OnTheMarket.com
-- 30 November 2017: Chancellors Group signs 5-year agreement to
list its properties at OnTheMarket.com
-- 2 November 2017: Arun Estates signs 5-year listing agreement
to list its properties at OnTheMarket.com
Background on OnTheMarket:
Launched in January 2015, the OnTheMarket.com property portal
was created by Agents' Mutual Limited, a company limited by
guarantee and founded in January 2013 by a small group of agent
firms, with the objective of creating a new portal to challenge the
dominance of Rightmove and Zoopla. Both groups were felt to be
using their strong positions relative to their agent customers to
impose significant price increases for their portal services.
The Agents' Mutual proposition of an agent-backed portal
offering a premier search service to consumers whilst charging fair
prices to agents quickly found support among a very wide group of
leading independent agents across the UK. These firms funded the
venture by way of loan note subscriptions and committed to list
with the portal once it went live.
OnTheMarket plc was admitted to AIM on Friday 9 February
alongside a capital raise of GBP30 million to support a new growth
strategy for the business.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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