BytePlay. Mark Milner was still in hearty mode. “The primary reason behind the acquisition of these domains is to strengthen our already strong consumer reach and drive more home searchers to one of our core brands. In the past month, with the incorporation of Globrix.com, dothomes.co.uk and extate.co.uk into The Digital Property Group, we’ve significantly enhanced our agent offering which translates into more visitors, enquiries and instructions.” Rightmove hasn’t been on the acquisition trail but they maintain their position as the Number 1 portal, helped along by their New Year campaign which included very prominent adverts on primetime TV, featuring estate agents in an African bush setting – the Serengeti to be precise, with Joanna Lumley urging viewers to visit their local estate agent to get the right advice. We thought it was very nice of Rightmove to portray agents in such a positive way, although it was all a bit strange, but Rightmove say it had the required effect and brought in hundreds of thousands of new hits to the portal.
THE NEW BOYS
One Property is a new portal, launched in February. It’s the new baby of One Property Solutions which provides a range of private and professional services; One HIP (Home Information Pack), One Conveyancing, One Inspect, One Utility, One Letting and One Investment. Their gameplan is to ‘support
the development of professional resources to the property industry’ and this has led to the commission of the new One Property Portal dedicated to the UK property market and completely free. Well not quite – but all that’s required from agents is to order one ancillary service from them per month, eg. a HIP or a survey to guarantee unlimited monthly advertising. The website has a contemporary look with user friendly navigation. The property search function is designed to provide the user with more relevant results, more information and better pictures. Another new portal, Chainfree. com, may be new but the owners are not. Chainfree is a free to list portal that provides consumers with easy access to ‘chain free’ properties. It has been launched by Spicerhaart Corporate Sales
Globrix started life in January 2008 as a joint venture between News International and the founders, Daniel Lee and Ian
Parry, with ‘millions of pounds’ invested.
Pictured, Daniel Lee, founder of Globrix
years, which is unique as it provides a single online platform for Countrywide’s properties and services, with dedicated sections on estate agency, lettings, surveying, conveyancing, mortgage and insurance services. Technology has moved on since Countrywide first began launching websites and Propertywide will greatly improve our online presence, profile and the volume of leads we generate across all aspects of the business and will complement our work with property portals.”
and offers more than 5,500 properties from over 850 estate agency branches. Estate agents working with Spicerhaart Corporate Sales can list their property on the website free using password-protected access. The site complements Spicerhaart’s existing online service, the auction site Mustbesold.com. Mark Pilling, MD, Spicerhaart
Corporate Sales said: “The launch of Chainfree.com is a lifeline for estate agents, allowing them easy access to a range of serious, motivated buyers looking to make a fast purchase to add to their investment portfolio. We have already had as many as 33,000 pages visited in one day, and this
is set to increase rapidly now that the site is officially launched to the public. With free listings, estate agents would be short-sighted not to take the opportunity to market their properties on the site.” Meanwhile, agency giants
Countrywide launched Propertywide. Grenville Turner, CEO of Countrywide, said, “Propertywide provides cutting- edge technology to market all of Countrywide’s properties and services. The improved features have been extremely well received by our staff and customers, following its launch in September 2009. Propertywide is one of the biggest online investments Countrywide has made in recent
NICHE PLAYERS
Not all property portals are aimed at estate agents; we must be aware of the effects that the growing number of sell it or let it yourself portals may have on the traditional UK market. U-rooms is scheduled to go live this month and will use social networking to connect landlords with tenants, as well as working with letting agents. Landlords will be able to post their properties to Facebook and tenants will be able to create connect their u-rooms account to Facebook and tell potential landlords who they are and what they’re looking for. For the landlord, they can match their own personality or requirements to their future lodger/ tenant. U-rooms was founded by Mike
Propertywide is one of the biggest online investments Countrywide has made in recent years, which is unique
as it provides a single online platform for Countrywide’s properties and services.”
Grenville Turner, CEO of Countrywide
Peirce, ex-CTO for lastminute.com and Mark Davies, ex-head of online for the UNITE group (the largest provider of student accommodation in the UK). Mike says, “Instead of simple listings, U-rooms will offer tenants an intuitive and interactive multi- channel service to enable them to build a highly personalised search profile that will deliver property shortlists anywhere, anytime, via PC or mobile and making use of social networking sites. This market is the last bastion of the high street that hasn’t been disrupted as other verticals such as travel, retail and music have, and we aim to change that since we have experience in all of them. “We will empower flat seekers
and landlords with tools to ensure they have a ‘correct’ match, as well as services for pre-tenancy, tenancy and post tenancy. We’re also actively encouraging letting agents to use the site.” ThePropertyScout.com is a new
website for people looking to buy or rent property, aiming to save
PROPERTYdrum MARCH 2010 33
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