OnTheMarket plc (LON:OTMP), the agent-backed company which operates the OnTheMarket.com property portal, announced today that its UK agents’ home rental property listings are now available to view on Facebook Marketplace.
We caught up with CEO Ian Springett to talk about this latest update. Ian explains in our interview how the arrangement came about, commercial agreements in place, how its agent base is growing along with increased traffic to the site and what he believes will disrupt “the duopoly” of Rightmove and Zoopla.
Following the success of Marketplace’s property for rent offering in the US, Facebook has launched a similar experience for UK property-seekers who will be able to find the OnTheMarket listings of tens of thousands of its agents’ UK current properties to rent on Marketplace.
As of today, people on-the-go can search Marketplace and will be able to filter by property type, price range and bedrooms to browse the rental listings provided by OnTheMarket.com.
John Milsom, Brand Director of OnTheMarket plc, says: “We are excited to be working with Facebook Marketplace and to be a listing partner. OnTheMarket is the UK’s agent-backed property portal with a mission to connect active property-seekers with its property-advertising agent customers. We believe the quality of OnTheMarket agents’ property content integrated with the considerable scale and reach of Facebook Marketplace’s brand and service is a perfect fit.
“Today, people can search Facebook Marketplace in the UK and connect with our agents, who update their listings data frequently to ensure accurate availability and pricing. We look forward to working with Marketplace to create world-class value for property-seekers and value for both of our businesses.
“OnTheMarket plc was admitted to AIM on 9 February and by 22 August we had increased the number of contracted UK agent offices from 5,500 to more than 10,500. As at 4 September, OnTheMarket now carries more than 600,000 UK residential property listings which is approximately 60% of the stock listed on Rightmove and approximately 75% of the stock listed on Zoopla. Within their stock, Rightmove and Zoopla have substantial numbers of properties listed with them direct by new homes developers which is a customer group OnTheMarket has yet to address.
“Momentum is strong and the Facebook Marketplace integration is another example of how we shall be increasing the exposure of our agents’ properties. We expect agents will be attracted to OnTheMarket to showcase their rental properties with us on Marketplace as well as on our own portal.”
The goal of Marketplace is to connect people through commerce. More than 800 million people globally each month come to Facebook Marketplace to buy and sell things (as at April 2018).
In the UK, a total of 40 million people access Facebook every month. 37 million people access Facebook every month on mobile and 30 million people every day (as at Q3, 2018).
