OnTheMarket has signed up 1,000 more of its member agents to paying contracts, 57% of which have signed long-term agreements that come with shares, while the rest have committed to one-year contracts with options to acquire shares later. This is in addition to the existing agents already paying to use its service signed up prior to its AIM launch.
This means it has so far persuaded 8% of its customer base to pay for its service at an average monthly fee of £337, its latest results show.
OnTheMarket also says it is considering copying Zoopla and may soon acquire one or more property technology companies and is also preparing to roll out its product to new homes developers.
As it reported earlier this week the portal now has 650,000 listings and in May attracted 25.4 million visits to its website and claims to have overtaken Zoopla for leads at 102 a month on average.
Fragile financials
But its financials remains fragile. Average revenue per agent dropped from £198 to £130 during the 12 months to its year end on January 31st, reflecting its ‘freebie’ strategy of getting agents on board. Group revenue increased by only £600,000 to £14.2 million.
OnTheMarket’s huge expenditure on marketing is also revealed. Last year it spent £14.9 million on advertising alone, helping drive operating loss from £3.9 million to £14.5 million.
“We are established as one of the leading portals and our progress to date has given us confidence that we can continue to build on this strong start and develop a market-leading, agent-backed alternative to Rightmove and Zoopla,” says CEO Ian Springett (left).
“We are benefitting from growing agent support and are strongly positioned to continue our growth in agent offices listing and in agent firms converting to becoming investors alongside long-term paying contracts.
The post OnTheMarket converts 8% of remaining ‘freebie’ agents to paying customers appeared first on The Negotiator.