NAEA agents canvassed about paying for PropertyLive

News Category: Industry News

Members of the National Federation of Property Professionals, including NAEA and ARLA agents, could be charged a compulsory £840 per office, per year, to promote the website PropertyLive.

An email canvassing opinions has been sent to users of PropertyLive which, until now, has always been seen as a free resource for NFoPP members.

One agent said he was “utterly gob-smacked” by the idea of the £70 a month per branch levy. He said: “We have already forked out hundreds on training, certificates and annual membership.” He, and others, said they were also critical of PropertyLive.

The £70 a month suggestion compares with the £308 average cost-per-branch on Rightmove.

NFoPP chief executive Peter Bolton King robustly defended the charging proposal, saying the idea had come from members in the first place and that it would be the members would decide the issue.

He said: “This is not something that would be imposed from the top down. It is a member-led initiative.

“It is the members themselves who are wanting to know how we will be handling the next stage of PropertyLive. The site is working very well now, but we need to get our message out to consumers. Whenever we go into members’ meetings, it is members who are raising this and it is they who are suggesting that one way forward is to charge their offices.

“There does seem to be an appetite in wanting to support PropertyLive in this way.

“An effective advertising campaign could cost between £1m and £2m.

“I must stress that at the moment, the levy is an idea. It is not set in stone and we are simply gauging members’ opinions.”

NFoPP has published losses of around £1m for its last financial year, but the deficit had been expected and budgeted for. The annual report explains that it had been decided to cut costs where possible, but to use previous surplus in order to continue providing services and to move forward on other projects.

In his email this week to PropertyLive users – who also include auctioneering and commercial property members of NAVA and ICBA – Bolton King says of PropertyLive: “Over the last 12 months, we have been developing the site to a position where we can confidently promote it as a leading resource for people looking to buy or rent a property.


“A number of key changes have already been made to improve the visibility of the site on major search engines such as Google, and this work will continue over the coming months. Over time, this will lead to significant increases in visitors to the site, and an increased number of valuable leads to our members.

“Despite our confidence that these changes will significantly raise the value of PropertyLive, we expect that it will take some time for them to generate the results that our members want to see.

“We have also fully investigated a number of complementary strategies, with the aim of increasing the number of visitors to the site. Until traffic to the site increases and additional revenues are made through PropertyLive, additional funds would be needed to support any such campaigns.


“A number of our members and area branches have already approached us with the suggestion of introducing a compulsory monthly marketing levy per office registered on PropertyLive. These member contributions would be strictly ring-fenced for the sole purpose of marketing PropertyLive.


“By way of example, a £1.7m annual advertising budget (approx £70 a month contribution from each office registered on PropertyLive) would include two TV advertising campaigns and promotion in major national newspapers.”

He added: “Support from members in promoting the site is essential.”

An online survey about the suggested levy is available to members. The results will be discussed at the next NFoPP board meeting on April 27.


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