New free portal jumps in to challenge Rightmove

News Category: Industry News

A new UK property portal has launched, claiming to be mounting a completely serious challenge to Rightmove and the other paid for portals. Free to use, it will list Google Map’s properties, but in familiar portal listing style.

The Big Property List, an independent company which has clarified it is not a Google product or service, says it will  take up the gauntlet thrown down by the search engine’s critics who say that users do not like Google’s mapping format.

Google Maps launched in the UK in June with a free service available to all agents. But many in the industry believe it has failed to make the impact expected.

Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s commercial director, said at the time of the Google launch: “The vast majority of Rightmove users still prefer list-based search results when home-hunting.”

Rightmove declined to supply its properties to Google, although Zoopla was one of the first adopters.

It is into the front line of this battle that The Big Property List has emerged.

However, there is a big question mark as to just how big the list is, which may beg questions about the listings on Google Maps.

For example, yesterday evening, there were more properties listed on The Big Property List on the Isle of Wight than for the whole of Hampshire. And there were only 42 properties listed in the whole of Kent. This compares with PropertyLive, the NAEA's often criticised property portal, which has 1,000 properties listed in Kent.

The Big Property List managing director James Cole is, however, confident about his proposition. He said: “Any agent can send property adverts for free to the map-based Google system. If they choose to syndicate this information, these properties will then automatically appear – for free – on The Big Property List.

“Estate agents fork out millions of pounds a year to advertise on nationwide sites. There will be no reason to do this any more.”

He added: “Many industry commentators and property portals have dismissed the threat posed by Google, saying that house hunters don’t want to search for property using the Google map view but prefer a list format. The Big Property List addresses this by combining the power of Google Property with a familiar listing design.

“Our site offers what everyone wants – a nationwide listing service to match Rightmove, which is free to use by agents and which utilises Google’s innovation. 

“It gives agents, home seekers and sellers on a budget a no-cost, no frills, nationwide shop window.”

Cole said he has no plans to charge estate agents anything in the future.

He said: “Of course, you should never say never, but it is simply not in our plans for this year or in the future. I suppose the only thing that would ever make us change our minds would be if agents positively told us that they wanted more from our site, such as premium listings.

“However, our plans are to make money from the site by third-party advertising, for example from removals firms and solicitors. The current aim is simply to get The Big Property List out there, and get it known.”

Cole has surveying and agency experience, but has a more recent high-tech background.

www.thebigpropertylist.co.uk


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