The major residential internet property portals are facing pressure from rivals to stop charging estate agents for advertising on their sites.
This week, MoveMachine, a home information pack provider set up by Edinburgh-based solicitor ESPC Group, announced that it would become the latest to provide a free listings service for estate agents.
The site will launch this summer, and will become an additional service within the range of HIP services it offers.
The move follows similar sites such as Zomf, Onemove and home.co.uk, which are undercutting paid-for sites such as Rightmove, Primelocation, Fish4 and Findaproperty.
Derek Lithgow, business development and planning director at MoveMachine, said: “The trend on the internet in general is to make information available to people for free. Estate agents are discovering that it is within their best interests to list on as many free sites as possible.
“It is only in the interests of the paid-for property portals to charge.”
The move follows demands from the chief executive of estate agency Onemove for agents to “work together to maintain a healthy business” to prevent supermarket chain Tesco from taking market share away from estate agents.
Last month, Tesco launched a new internet service allowing the public to manage their own home sales for £199, cutting the need to pay estate agent fees.
A week after the launch of the new service, Tesco’s main property partner, Fish4, said it was pulling out when its contract ended because of pressure from estate agents (14 July, p36).
