UK Landlord Forum / Life

All the new online estate agencies  that promised to take over the high street property trend setters, seem to have failed to take any chunk of Rightmove or Zoopla market share.

Is it because of their flawed business model or  it it because the property sector is not suited for online  transactions.

I have given this some serious thought... I think it could be both of the things mentioned, to some extent, possibly even more things to an even further extent, but I'm not 100% sure I agree with the assertion.

I used to work for an online agent, it was my first job in the property industry.  I don't believe the business model is flawed.  From a rental point of view the online agents were very useful for hands-on landlords.  They offered flexibility to choose which services they required; some just advertised on Rightmove and Zoopla, others had deposits protected, tenancy agreements, referencing etc added on.  So landlords got to choose how much assistance they required and simply paid a one-off fee for it.

I think the reason why it didn't take such a huge chunk is the platform is not suitable for landlords overseas and landlords who don't have the time or knowledge to manage their properties.  There was a ceiling to how high the online business could go for rentals.