An email sent out to agents by Zoopla has confirmed that, if the flotation goes ahead, they will be able to buy up to £2,500 worth of shares per branch – and the same again next year, provided they remain a “loyal” member.
The email also confirms the 20% discount and says that the minimum investment that can be made by agents is £500.
Those who decide to make that minimum investment of £500 would be allocated £625 worth of shares.
The email, from Zoopla chief executive Alex Chesterman, makes clear that the IPO has not yet launched, and that when it does, a prospectus will be published.
The email adds: “We thank you for your ongoing loyalty and we continue to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that we remain your most valued digital partner.”
The Sunday Times carried a report at the weekend under the headline “Zoopla to buy agents’ loyalty”.
The piece, by Simon Duke, said that the 20% “cut-price deal has been widely viewed as a ploy to stymie a new housing portal…
“Agents’ Mutual aims to break the iron grip exerted by Rightmove and Zoopla over internet property search.”
Meanwhile, in a post on Eye at the weekend which appears on an earlier story about Zoopla, a reader says that in south-west Wales, a group of Agents’ Mutual agents has formed to decide en masse which portal to ditch – Rightmove or Zoopla.
The group says that several agents have suggested dropping both, to concentrate wholly on Agents’ Mutual.
Question? Would agents rather have shares at 20% discount. Or at full price and for zoopla to remove budget agency models from membership?
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I applaud the sentiment above – but that's not on offer so let's not kid ourselves. What a brilliant publicity boost for Agents' Mutual this Zoopla float is turning out to be…….the 'future discount' idea isn't one suggested on the q.t. by Ian Springett is it ??
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Surely all Agents Mutual agents have already effectively "invested" in a competitor. Thanks for the offer Zoopla, but that's not an on offer I'd be taking up.
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I don't see why any agent or investor would be interested in investing in a portal that is in decline. 1000s and 1000s of properties will be removed by agents in January resulting in £millions of lost membership revenue.
Those agents that have invested in AM are not going to invest in a competitor, and those who haven't surely won't risk their cash on shares in Zoopla when they are aware of the impact that AM will definately now have on them. This is a poorly thought out move by Zoopla, in my opinion. Rightmove would do well to twist the knife and offer free shares/discount deals to AM investors who commit for a period of time with themselves and AM.
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"This is a poorly thought out move by Zoopla, in my opinion"…Whilst I understand that a float has been in the offing for some time, I wonder if the better option (once they knew of Agents mutual and the amount of agencies signing up) would have been to put the float off until next year. It would have shown a bit more confidence in their offering instead it's only succeeded in giving the impression that they are being 'desperate' trying to 'cash in' and sell before everyone runs off to Agents Mutual.
Zoopla and Rightmove had rarely commented on Agents Mutual, until now, other then a piece in EAT this time last year by Alex Chesterman about AM being anti competitive, I can't help but think that Rightmove have won this battle as Zoopla has blinked first. I would not be surprised to see Rightmove now capitilize on this very soon.
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Right, I've read enough on this subject over the last few days (ever since the drowning man, Zoopla, clutched at the straw of a share-discount bribe) and am sending off my cheque to join AM. "Zoopla, you're fired" (apologies to Lord Sugar)
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Absolute madness . On one hand you have a successful ( albeit because of us) business that has actual track record, a brand name, staff,a website (being a website company , kind of fundemental) and some profit and loss accounts to show , this company is offering discounted shares.
On the other side of the coin you have a proposition with no brand name, no website, no public presence , no living room appeal and people are queueing up to sign cheques.
I have always considered myself fairly sane and I step back and have a look at the situation from the eyes of anyone else in any other business it looks like utter madness …. puzzles me.
Also if you think that the publicity surrounding this is bad wait to the fallout of The Times piece " Agents create own portal that bans cut price competition" will be …. im sure my sellers will understand
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Danny, the hard fact is that AM isnn't going live for another 7 months. It doesn't NEED a brand name or website until the 1st January 2015. Of course it doesn't have a "public presence" as I said, it isn't live yet. Come the 1st January though it WILL certainly have a "presence" in sunny West Wales because I for one will do my best to make sure it does. Whose "banning competition"? You can advertise on either Zoopla of Rightmove AS WELL AS AM if that's what you and your sellers want. I won't be – but that's my choice.
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Some good points Taff, I have to say that the 2000 offices is probably what, 15-20% of the market . It's like shooting at lidl where they only have bread and milk. The reason the portals are popular is unfortunately they are convenient. I can't see AM ever getting to a level needed to challenge. If I make things materially harder for buyers to buy my clients properties to save some as budget I think I would face a backlash. I also don't understand the Zoopla bashing. I get less from them than RM but they charge me a fraction . My rm leads cost me £6 a pop and Zoopla is about £2 . I can't imagine anyone joining AM because Zoopla charge too much?Surely the biggest budget eater is the one to eliminate ?
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"My Zoopla leads cost me about £2"….Get ready for an increase very very soon, as you will be one of a handful of people paying their fees. Don't take my word for it just ask Alex Chesterman and Scott Forbes who are fighting over themselves to get out of the portal market.
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To danny – completely missing the point. Obviously haven't researched the subject you're so lightly dismissing. Check out the funding behind AM. Check out the names backing it. Where did Zoopla come from originally ? A tin-pot outfit that got big and ugly purely through capital-backed acquisition. When it acquired findaproperty and primelocation it trashed its 'market' debut (admittedly shockingly dominated by RM) by its cack-handed fee 'negotiating' strategy (lol). Going public won't save it and those 2000 offices backing AM will rush to dump it at the first opportunity. Invest in the shares ? I don't think so. And if they haven't mentioned AM in their prospectus – as seems to be the case – that is a scandalous oversight in my view.
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That's like saying ebay and paypal came from a coffee and chat in someone's back bedroom… The point is that is it's here…today. AM want to charge me more than Zoopla for precisely at this moment in time …Nada, not a single lead . It's a little bit emporers new clothes if you ask me . As I pointed out to Taff ,are you joining AM because Zoopla charge you too much? Surely the idea behind AM is to damage the market leader ? I personally worry for a market with a two very weak alternatives . When you had Zoopla and property finder or findaproperty whichever way round it was Rightmove put my bills up 28% because I couldn't say no. Neither of the others where a viable alternative to pull off , you weaken the Zoopla proposition and AM will be in year 1 or 2 of trading do you think your RM bills will go
A)up
B)down
Answers on a postcard ….
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Is this not Zoopla's pitch to ensure the 1 x portal option open to members of Agents Mutual is them? I feel it is geared to hurt Rightmove rather than a pitch against AM. It could work. A number of shares on RM are being sold now, as reported on here by Roz! Rats and sinking ship?
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Last roll of the dice by Zoopla. A 20% discount seems a little half hearted coupled with a £2,500 cap. A move to lower and price freeze fees in return for loyalty may have been better served. Is the IPO a means of generating the marketing budget needed to take on Rightmove or a half veiled attempt for DMGT to recoup as much as they can before their 52.6% stake becomes worthless? Too little too late in my opinion. Cue the charm offensive from portal BDM's………
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Agents placing their £pounds into membership or shares should check that whichever portal, that the portals don't allow budget agent models in to place private sellers or private landlords adverts next to proper agents ads.
Zoopla and RM both allow budget agencies in. They take funds from clients who otherwise would be paying proper agents
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Spot on Trevor. Asked this very question, AM stated they will absolutely prohibit this on their portal which is after all created by agents and owned by them. This would totally negate the effort.
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Agents will stay only loyal only if they get results and Zoopla stop hiking their prices by outrageous amounts when the mood takes them. This share deal is on the back of a 9% increase in their charges earlier this year so we are paying for the discount already!
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Danny. Your figures could be right (I have no idea which part of the UK you're in) but frankly I would be amazed if only 15-20% of the local agents had signed up for AM. Here in West Wales I think 90% of the agents have signed up as Gold members. A handful signed up as Silver members, but nearly all the agents are already signed up in some form. I will work out (and share) the relative costs of RM & Zoopla but I will definitely NOT be working out the cost per lead – I will be working on the cost per completed SALE. After all, none of us get paid for enquiries, we get paid on sales. I have a thing for spreadsheets and figures, but I am certainly happy to share my findings with someone who avoids spreadsheets like the plague. And with respect, the idea behind AM is not to “damage the market leader” personally I would hope that the whole point was to REPLACE the market leader.
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