TIDMOTMP
RNS Number : 1745P
OnTheMarket plc
06 February 2019
The information contained within this announcement is deemed to
constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse
Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this
announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in
the public domain.
6 February 2019
Record visit traffic and leads for OnTheMarket.com as property
stock grows strongly
OnTheMarket plc (AIM: OTMP), the agent-backed company which
operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, announces today that
traffic to its portal in January exceeded 23.5 million visits*, a
new monthly record. Driven by investment in heavyweight national
multi-channel advertising, the portal attracted over 4 times the
number of visits compared with February 2018, the month of the
Company's admission to AIM.
As at 31 January 2019, OnTheMarket.com displayed over 600,000 UK
residential property listings. The Company's UK property stock is
already over 80% of Zoopla's and approximately 60% of
Rightmove's(1) . This increase in coverage reflects the sustained
rapid growth in the number of estate and lettings agent branches
contracted to list at OnTheMarket.com since Admission: over 12,500
contracted branches as at 31 January 2019, compared with 5,500 in
February 2018.
The growth in both property stock and visits has combined to
produce record levels of leads generated for OnTheMarket's estate
and lettings agent customers. In January 2019, OnTheMarket
delivered more than 7 times as many phone and email leads as in
February 2018.
Consumer engagement with OnTheMarket is further evidenced by the
number of active property alerts now operating, which has reached
1.5 million.
OnTheMarket's agency branch base at Admission was almost
entirely on paying contracts, the majority of which were long-term
and at full-tariff. The growth in the base since Admission has been
predominantly from offering free listings under short-term
introductory trial offers, with a view to conversion to full-tariff
contracts when the value of the portal has been demonstrated.
Over the coming months, the Company will seek to complete the
conversion process using a range of offers which will, for selected
agents, include long-term agreements which will be accompanied by
share issuance. As at Admission, the Company had authority to issue
36,363,636 agent recruitment shares. Such equity issuance alongside
long-term listing agreements enables agents to support the only
major agent-backed portal with a view to creating a fairly-priced
alternative to Rightmove and Zoopla and to share in any increase in
the value of the Company.
Ian Springett, Chief Executive Officer of OnTheMarket, said: "In
less than a year since our IPO we have significantly reduced the
gap in property listings between our portal and Rightmove and
Zoopla and have dramatically increased the number of visits made to
it. These achievements have produced strong network effects,
manifested by the very substantial numbers of leads we are now
delivering to our agent customers.
Our strategy to grow rapidly the scale of the portal is working
and these latest milestones indicate that attracting more
property-seekers to view more properties, many of which are listed
with us on a New & exclusive basis, is a recipe for generating
more value to agents. That value is not just in the direct
advertising return we provide but also in creating much needed
competition in a market previously dominated by just two large
portal groups."
*Visits comprise individual sessions on OnTheMarket.com's web
based portal or mobile applications by users for the period
indicated as measured by Google Analytics. Data for leads generated
is reported from the Company's operating systems.
(1) As at 31 January 2019, Zoopla stated on its website that it
was listing 518,244 UK residential sales properties and 221,021 UK
residential lettings properties, totalling 739,265 properties.
Rightmove, in its 2017 Annual Report, stated that it had "1
million UK residential properties".
The figures for both Zoopla and Rightmove include substantial
numbers of direct listings from new homes developers, a market
segment which OnTheMarket is yet to focus on.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
OnTheMarket
Ian Springett, CEO
Clive Beattie, CFO 0207 930 0777
TB Cardew (Financial PR adviser) 0207 930 0777 / onthemarket@tbcardew.com
Ed Orlebar 07738 724 630
Alycia MacAskill 07876 222 703
Zeus Capital (Nominated Adviser/Joint
Broker)
Martin Green, Pippa Hamnett,
Jamie Peel 0203 829 5000
(Corporate Finance)
Benjamin Robertson, John Goold
(Broking)
Stockdale Securities (Joint Broker)
Daniel Harris, Rose Ramsden 0207 601 6100
Background on OnTheMarket:
OnTheMarket plc, the agent-backed company which operates the
OnTheMarket.com property portal, is the third biggest UK
residential property portal provider in terms of traffic. It aims
to deliver a market-leading, agent-backed alternative to Rightmove
and Zoopla, offering a first-class service to agents at sustainably
fair prices and becoming the go-to portal for serious
property-seekers.
OnTheMarket plc was admitted to AIM in February 2018 with GBP30
million in new capital in order to support a new growth strategy
for the business.
At its IPO in February 2018, OnTheMarket was 70% owned by over
two thousand agent firms.
With backing from its agent owners, OnTheMarket has developed
unique sources of competitive advantage such as the thousands of
"New & exclusive" property listings it receives every month
from its agents to display 24 hours or more before they are on
Rightmove or Zoopla.
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END
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