Jackson-Stops & Staff Joins New Property Website OnTheMarket.com
Jackson-Stops & Staff will feature all of its properties at OnTheMarket.com, a new property website which launches in January as a direct competitor to Rightmove and Zoopla, the national upmarket agent announced today. Properties from across all Jackson-Stops & Staff 44 offices nationwide, including seven London offices, will feature on the new property website. In addition, all Jackson-Stops & Staff will continue to be listed with Rightmove. Jackson-Stops & Staff has more than a century of experience in the prime property market from houses and apartments in Londons smartest districts, to country houses, farms and estates and listed buildings, from residential development and new homes sales to professional services. OnTheMarket.com which launches on Monday 26 January 2015 - is a mutual organisation focused on providing an outstanding service for property searchers, estate and letting agents, vendors and landlords. The venture already has thesupport of more than 4,000 estate and lettings agency branches nationwide, including those of leading national, regional and local firms. OnTheMarket.com isexpecting many more to join in the coming weeks as momentumcontinues to grow. Its member agents will be moving hundreds of thousands ofproperties to OnTheMarket.com from other websites to create a unique set which cannot be found elsewhere. When OnTheMarket.com launches, neither Rightmove nor Zoopla will be able to claim their property listings cover the entire market because many estate and letting agents will be leaving them to join OnTheMarket.com as the best platform to showcase their properties in the clearest and simplest way. The property search at OnTheMarket.com will be slick, simple, fast and state-of-the-art, compatible with the latest technologies. The website will adapt seamlessly to fit the screen of any device being used to view it. There will be no clutter from irritating and distracting third party adverts, nor any spam email. Every property at OnTheMarket.com will be marketed by a locally-based estate or letting agent because OnTheMarket.com knows the majority of the public recognises the benefits of having a local professional in place who can manage the sales or lettings process on their behalf. Also, there is no substitute for their detailed knowledge of a property, the local area, the current market conditions and the vendors/landlord's personal circumstances. OnTheMarket.com will not feature properties marketed by online-only agents. Tim Dansie, on behalf of Jackson-Stops & Staff, said: Our directors and staff combine a first-class understanding of residential property with the very highest standards of services for clients. We believe OnTheMarket.com will rapidly grow to become a major player in the portal market because it will provide a clean, crisp and simple search function and a highly effective platform for our vendor and landlord clients and be a great place to launch new properties onto the market. Ian Springett, Chief Executive of OnTheMarket.com, said: We are delighted Jackson-Stops & Staff has committed to OnTheMarket.com and we look forward to matching motivated buyers and tenants with all the properties our member agents are marketing for their clients across its 44 offices nationwide. Notes to editors: OnTheMarket.com is the property website of Agents Mutual Ltd. Agents Mutual is a company limited by guarantee and was established in 2013. Its purpose is to provide a first-class property search service to local estate and lettings agents, their clients and the property-seeking public and it is not driven by narrow shareholder value motives. Every estate or letting agent firm which lists properties with it becomes a member of the company and has an equal interest in it. One firm = one member = one vote, irrespective of the number of offices a firm has. OnTheMarket.com member agents have provided more than 8 million of pre-launch development funding for the new venture. This has been provided by way of loans and pre-launch subscriptions made in proportion to the number of offices each firm has. The property websites market was reviewed by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2012 when it considered the merger of Digital Property Group (parent DMGT) and Zoopla Group (a private equity backed business). It found that the market was not working well and there was too little competition and choice for property market participants. The OFT approved the merger which created Zoopla Property Group in April 2012. In 2013, Rightmove income was 140M and profits were 104M (74% profit margin). Zooplas profits were 29.4M. The senior management team behind OnTheMarket.com has proven expertise in creating, running and growing successful brands and businesses. They were responsible for the founding and the development of Primelocation.com which is now part of Zoopla Property Group. All estate and letting agents joining OnTheMarket.com commit to list all their properties at OnTheMarket.com and a maximum of one other competing property website, which in practice means in most cases removing their properties and their listing fees from either Rightmove or Zoopla. This element of the strategy is widely seen as essential in enabling the business to disrupt the duopoly which currently exists in the property website market. OnTheMarket.com will not accept listings from private vendors and landlords. OnTheMarket.com will cover the whole of the UK and its member agents are spread according to the national market distribution. Approximately 70% of its member firms are located outside of London and 30% inside London. For further information, please contact: Vikki Thomas onVikki.thomas@agentsmutual.co.uk or call 0203 714 3985 Marion Hardman, for Jackson-Stops & Staff, on 0203 697 4358 or jss@fourcommunications.com