Ryan Mendy, Head of Account Management at Zeus Capital interviews OnTheMarket plc (LON:OTMP) CEO Ian Springett. In this, the 1st of a three part interview, and now with three main players Ryan asks whats really going on and why OnTheMarket exist.
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 property-seekers 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.
The company is the third biggest UK residential property portal provider in terms of traffic and has, with backing from its agent owners, developed unique sources of competitive advantage such as the “New and Exclusive” property listings.