Estate Agent Wars: Competitions watchdog warns firms over suspected collusion in OnTheMarket antitrust row April 21, 2016 Has the government just hammered the final nail in the coffin for OntheMarket? Estate agents have been sent a warning by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), telling them they may be breaking the law by making "joint decisions" to join the portal and exit rivals such as Rightmove and Zoopla. Those who are suspected of [...]
UK property listings drop by a fifth in November as London scores zero December 9, 2015 New property listings dropped by more than a fifth across the UK in November, with not one London borough recording a rise in supply, new research shows. The number of new homes on the market dropped by 21.5 per cent, according to the latest Property Supply Index by online estate agents HouseSimple.com, marking the biggest drop [...]
UK house prices: Mergers, IPOs and property tech disruption – how online estate agents will change the housing market in 2016 December 22, 2015 This year has been an explosive one for the online estate agency sector. We have seen the space develop, increase in size dramatically and show that it is here to stay. It's not just a fad, as the high street so desperately claims. I believe the central plank behind the success of the online sector [...]
London house prices: Is the property supply crisis on the rebound? Here’s the top five spots for homes on the market with Wandsworth and Westminster top of the list November 11, 2015 When it comes to London house prices, you have to throw out your notions of supply and demand: it’s all about location, location, location. That’s no huge surprise of course, but what is surprising is the extent to which that’s the case. Wandsworth, the most expensive borough in the capital, actually had the largest number [...]
Purplebricks, the Neil Woodford-backed online estate agents, starts trading on AIM and sees share price fall December 17, 2015 Purplebricks, the online estate agents backed by superstar investor Neil Woodford, has started trading on London's junior market under the ticker PURP.L. Shares are currently trading down on the AIM market, at 96.5p, down six per cent from an opening price of 104.5p. The 240m ordinary shares were placed at 100p each, with proceeds of £25m and giving the [...]
Rightmove and Zoopla gaining after rival’s launch brushed off January 27, 2015 PROPERTY portal Zoopla was the darling of the FTSE 250 again yesterday, soaring 12 per cent after rival OnTheMarket’s website launch on Monday was widely seen as a damp squib. Many had worried that OnTheMarket (OTM), which bans participants from advertising properties with more than one rival website, would be bad news for Zoopla, pushing [...]
Best of the Brokers for 3 November 2015 November 3, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BARRATT DEVELOPMENTS Analysts at Jefferies have hiked their estimates for Zoopla’s full-year earnings by 15 per cent, citing growth in the number of agents on the property listing website and strong performance from uSwitch, a price comparison website Zoopla bought earlier this [...]
World view September 29, 2015 From capital flight to monetary wobbles, we highlight the figures that matter from around the world UNITED STATES 13 of 17 FOMC members predict a Fed rate rise in 2015. $1 trillion Total US car loans outstanding reached a record level, rising by $119bn in the second quarter. SOUTH AMERICA Junk S&P’s rating of Brazil [...]
Proptech: Technology is poised to transform the UK housing market February 19, 2016 The phrase “fintech” has long since entered mainstream use, while buzzwords like adtech, edtech and medtech are becoming increasingly familiar too. Now a newish category is entering the technology startup lexicon: “proptech”. The UK’s property industry has remained stubbornly resistant to change, even as innovation reshapes entire verticals across the wider economy. Compared with, say, [...]
OnTheMarket will need to win the Google battle before it can really challenge Zoopla and Rightmove January 28, 2015 OnTheMarket.com, the new property website from the Agents’ Mutual group of estate agents, launched with much fanfare this week with an apparent threat to the “duopoly” enjoyed by Rightmove and Zoopla. Zoopla, as the less well-visited of the two property portal giants, seemed in particular danger as one of the requirements of OnTheMarket.com meant [...]