PORTALS
HOW BIG IS SMALL? While these portals are focusing on target niches, The Big Property List is aiming for as full coverage of the property market as possible. Using the same example as Tepilo, a search on Norwich gives 1,769 properties for sale. So far, it’s been using Google Maps as its information source, though it will be replacing this feed with another in June, when Google (finally/maybe) turns off the property listings service. James Cole of The Big Property List
believes that despite the Big Three having taken the lead, “The internet is a complex ecosystem that allows different business models to survive and thrive alongside each other.” Since its launch in August last year, The Big Property List claims high visitor growth, and is republished by four other online publishers with a combined reach of over 2m monthly visitors. Republishing seems to be an increasingly interesting move for portals such as The Big Property List and Zoopla as the market matures, and smaller sites no longer have the resource to compile their own listings. That allows The Big Property List to operate an advertising supported business model rather than charge for listings. James Cole points out that using feeds
such as Google Maps gives The Big Property List lower costs and resource requirements than portals that deal with estate agents. But, he says, agents are still getting value. “We believed that if we did what was good for consumers it would be good for estate agents and this has proved to be the case.” He says many agents are now linking to the website; “they know that although we will only ever provide a small proportion of their leads, they are free and of good quality,” he says. Another approach comes from Nestoria,
the property search engine, which operates a pay-per-lead model. Ed Freyfogle of Nestoria says, “We focus on one thing and one thing only – making searching for a property as dead simple as possible.” Unlike most UK portals, Nestoria has gone international in a big way, in five EU markets, Australia, Brazil and India; it’s averaging 2-3 million users a month across those markets. It’s also using a slightly different take on the republishing model, having published its API so that other web publishers can build its data into their sites or write applications using the data. Mouseprice has a further tweak; rather
than showing properties for sale, it’s a repository of property related information including, not surprisingly, current and
16 MAY 2011 PROPERTYdrum
historic property prices. Jonathan Upton, of Calnea Analytics, says that their site, Mouseprice, is now fourth in terms of traffic to the big three, with 1.4 million visits a month, but says; “We don’t see Mouseprice as a niche portal: we see it as a property information website.” He believes Mouseprice has a rather
different demographic from portals, since it’s often vendors rather than purchasers who use it, up to two years before they actually take the decision to sell. “You list on Mouseprice because you want to reach people while they’re still formulating their plans,” he says. This gives it a different appeal to agents from the other sites. “We’re not a lead focused website,” Jonathan Upton says, “but we’re about you building your brand in your local area.” Mouseprice sells valuation reports, and it
also sells advertising on the site. It is already profitable, even though it doesn’t charge agents who provide feeds, since it sees having as complete a representation as possible of the properties on the market as
We focus on one thing and one thing only – making searching for a property as dead simple as
possible.’ ED FREYFOGLE NESTORIA
part of its raison d’être. “We’re looking for added value services we can add to Mouseprice,” Jonathan Upton adds. “We want to present interesting content in a novel way, either to sell advertising against it, or that we can charge for.” How seriously should estate agents take
these smaller portals? Ed Mead, at Douglas & Gordon, says, “Niche portals aren’t really a big part of our marketing mix.” But where they’re free to list, he says, “though they’re not wildly useful, why not?” He points out that there’s no requirement for exclusivity from major portals, and free-to-list portals expand the reach of his advertising. Martin Smith of software company
PropertyADD follows portals closely; he notes that although the niche portals may individually be quite small, altogether pay-per-lead and free-to-list sites accounted for 1.7m users in January 2010. That was getting on for 80 per cent of Rightmove’s total reach (though it included Globrix, now part of TDPG), so it offers real value to agents. Agents can also use information from the niche portals in their own newsletters and websites. For instance, he says, an agent could use Mouseprice’s price data for the area to give local vendors and purchasers a better feel for the market.
There’s no requirement for exclusivity from any of the major portals, and that listing on free-to-list portals expands the reach of
his advertising.’ ED MEAD DIRECTOR DOUGLAS & GORDON
THE LAST WORD Jonathan Upton also advises agents to take the niche portals seriously. “Lots of people tell us Rightmove is expensive,” he says. “Smaller agents have faced effective price rises over the past few years from major portals and feel they have had no choice.” Providing feeds to free-to-list and pay-per- lead portals, and using niche advertising, can help to enrich the marketing mix at minimal or no cost. “Don’t complain about price rises unless you use the free ones!”
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