23 Oct 2018 07:00
23 October 2018
Belvoir Lettings PLC, the UK's largest property franchise with 300 offices, joins OnTheMarket to list all its Group's properties
OnTheMarket plc, the agent-backed company which operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, is pleased to announce that Belvoir Lettings PLC ("Belvoir"), the UK's largest property franchise, has signed an agreement with OnTheMarket to advertise all of its Group's UK residential sales and lettings properties at OnTheMarket.com and will actively promote the portal brand with digital and branch-based marketing activity.
Belvoir was founded in February 1995 as a specialist lettings agent and over 23 years, through both organic growth and by acquisition, the Group has expanded to a network of 300 franchised lettings and estate agents operating nationwide across a range of leading brands, including Belvoir, Northwood and Newton Fallowell.
Dorian Gonsalves, Chief Executive Officer of Belvoir, says: "We have for some time believed that the property portals landscape was ripe for disruption. OnTheMarket is the first serious contender for several years to be injecting genuine competition in the interests of agents and property-searchers alike. It is agents who provide the portals with the majority of their content and income. It is also agents who serve their clients and property-searchers on the ground in selling, letting, buying and renting property. I'm very pleased to be announcing our strategic support for OnTheMarket as an agent-backed business and am confident that with agent momentum building it will continue to go from strength to strength."
Ian Springett, Chief Executive Officer of OnTheMarket plc, says: "While we have already been working with some individual offices within the Belvoir Group, we are absolutely delighted to welcome the entire Group to OnTheMarket. As an outstanding business with 300 lettings and estate agent offices up and down the UK, Belvoir continues to expand its network. Belvoir has an enviable reputation for combining strong central and supportive management with an entrepreneurial culture and high quality local client service. Belvoir's decision to support OnTheMarket is a strong testament to our success to date in increasing our agent base, our consumer traffic and the value we are creating for agents."
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
TB Cardew (Financial PR adviser) 0207 930 0777 / onthemarket@tbcardew.com
Ed Orlebar 07738 724 630
Tom Allison 07789 998 020
Background on OnTheMarket:
Launched in January 2015, the OnTheMarket.com property portal was created by Agents' Mutual Limited, a company limited by guarantee and founded in January 2013 by a small group of agent firms, with the objective of creating a new portal to challenge the dominance of Rightmove and Zoopla. Both groups were felt to be using their strong positions relative to their agent customers to impose significant price increases for their portal services.
The Agents' Mutual proposition of an agent-backed portal offering a premier search service to property-seeking consumers whilst charging fair prices to agents quickly found support among a very wide group of leading independent agents across the UK. These firms funded the venture by way of loan note subscriptions and committed to list with the portal once it went live.
OnTheMarket is the third biggest UK residential property portal provider in terms of traffic and has, with backing from its agent owners, developed unique sources of competitive advantage such as the "New and Exclusive" property listings.
OnTheMarket plc was admitted to AIM on Friday 9 February 2018 alongside a capital raise of £30 million to support a new growth strategy for the business.