The great property portals war is quietening down. The comfortable duopoly of Rightmove and Zoopla was blown open in January by disgruntled estate agents fed up with escalating fees, but OnTheMarket, their new rival venture, while making a lot of noise, seems to be running out of puff already, according to the latest update from Zoopla.
Zoopla suffered a net 3,800 defections in the three months to March, taking agent membership down to 12,400, but the attrition rate dropped to only 106 in April. “It will be less in May,” Alex Chesterman, the chief executive, predicts, adding that he expects net gains in members within months.
The number of properties for sale on Zoopla’s websites has grown from 803,000 in February to 866,000 today, hardly