New property portal OnTheMarket, which is backed by major estate agents, has been accused of being anti-consumer and anti-competition.
The house-sale marketing website has been set up by Agents Mutual which was itself set up by the likes of Savills, Knight Frank and Strutt&Parker, and goes live at the end of the month. It plans to take on the likes of Zoopla, which has 45m visitors a month and Rightmove, which has 90m.
But critics, including the HomeOwners Alliance, have said that the website is more about “protecting agents’ market share and profits” at the expense of homeowners.
Under the Agents’ Mutual rules, those wishing to list on the new website will only be allowed to use one other property portal, and also plans to ensure that it has new properties exclusively for 48 hours before going on any other site.
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