OnTheMarket CEO Jason Tebb is expected to remain in charge if and when the $100M takeover goes through, while one OnTheMarket shareholder has suggested that shareholders are being "mugged and should kick back" at Costar.

CoStar has also suggested that there will be no reduction in staff in the company, a workforce of approximately 180 people.

CoStar has vowed to invest £46.5M ($56.6M) into sales and marketing—six times OnTheMarket's current spend—to push OnTheMarket into unfamiliar territory—rivalling Rightmove for the number one spot in the UK.

Costar boss Any Florance has already gone on record with a bullish statement against incumbent market leader Rightmove, a company he says should not be operating at the margin it currently does:

"Public companies [like Rightmove] shouldn't operate at a 72% margin—it is to say that there's no way any company could ever compete in that space.

"Unless you're a taxing authority with control of the police, you can't scrape a 72% margin! There will be a couple of shakeups, a couple of rude awakenings.

"We believe the acquisition of OnTheMarket represents an attractive and efficient entry point into the £8 trillion United Kingdom residential property market.

"We see OnTheMarket as an important step in expanding our Homes.com residential network not only in the UK, but across Europe. We believe the market opportunity in Europe is over $10 billion, and we intend to participate aggressively in developing and expanding our residential marketplace network."

Costar's $100M offer represents a premium of £1.10 per share—but an OnTheMarket founder has urged the company's board to reconsider its decision.

Trevor Abrahmsohn has come out in support of the deal but questioned the value of a bid that he believes undervalues OnTheMarket's shares by 33%.

Abrahmsohn said:

"CoStar are not fools, they know that there is no room in the marketplace for a fourth portal (and it would cost too much anyway), and by the acquisition of OTM, de facto, they are buying market share on the cheap and we shouldn’t let them."

"If Costar or another big portal were instead to buy 50% of OnTheMarket at a discount, within a few months the shares would be over £2 or £3 based on hope value that such a wealthy partner would transform the fortunes of the company.

"Shareholders are being mugged and we should kick back."

Abrahmsohn suggested that OnTheMarket could and perhaps should be put up for auction so other portals like RealEstate.com.au can submit an offer.

Costar's interest in European portals was first publicised at the Property Portal Watch conference in Madrid in October, with Florance then going on the record to outline his plans for a European expansion. OnTheMarket was clearly already being tapped up, with news breaking less than two weeks later that Costar had submitted its offer for the portal.

CoStar's bid of 110p per share represents a premium of 56% to OnTheMarket’s last closing price and 93% to the three-month volume-weighted average price. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023 pending shareholder approval with OnTheMarket's Board having already expressed unanimous support.

Rumours of the takeover began to circulate in British media outlets late yesterday and were confirmed this morning via press releases issued by the two companies. The news follows CoStar founder and CEO, Andy Florance's candid admission at the recent Property Portal Watch conference that his company was coming to Europe with a $9 billion M&A "war chest".

Speaking of the acquisition, Florance said:

“We believe the acquisition of OnTheMarket represents an attractive and efficient entry point into the £8 trillion United Kingdom residential property market. We are excited to welcome the OnTheMarket team to the CoStar Group family.”

“OnTheMarket’s network of property professionals and breadth of advertiser relationships provide a strong foundation to compete with the dominant United Kingdom property portals,” continued Florance.

“The combination of OnTheMarket’s large network of agents and access to listings, together with the marketplace experience and resources of CoStar Group, has the potential to create the leading agent-friendly player in the UK residential marketplace. We see OnTheMarket as an important step in expanding our Homes.com residential network not only in the UK, but across Europe. We believe the market opportunity in Europe is over $10 billion, and we intend to participate aggressively in developing and expanding our residential marketplace network.”

As Florance highlighted in an on-stage interview with Online Marketplaces Chairman Simon Baker recently, CoStar has a track record of taking minor players and spending its way to market leadership. The company took Apartments.com from a minor player in the U.S. rentals market to an undisputed market leader and is in the process of turning Homes.com into a viable challenger to Zillow in the residential sales market.

The S&P 500 company has a phenomenal record of growth and clearly sees European expansion as part of its next phase.

A press release said that as the owner of OnTheMarket, CoStar would commit to spending £46.5 million on sales and marketing in the first full year "as the first stage of a multi-year investment programme totalling hundreds of millions of pounds". The intent to take on Rightmove was left in no doubt with the press release name-checking the dominant British portal saying that the figure was three times the current annual marketing spend of OnTheMarket's big green rival.

OnTheMarket's CEO, Jason Tebb referenced the increased budget set to be at his disposal in his comments:

“From a position of strength, partnering with CoStar Group will significantly accelerate our strategy with the clear target of becoming the market leader, whilst staying committed to fair and sustainable pricing. CoStar Group will bring industry-leading global expertise and significant financial firepower to invest in OnTheMarket, allowing us to accelerate our transformation of the sector. We have strong shared values in our commitment to agents who we believe will benefit from unparalleled value and greater opportunities to enhance their businesses.”

The takeover looks set to revive OnTheMarket after a slightly rocky period. Founded by agents in 2013, OnTheMarket failed to live up to expectations largely thanks to the controversial 'one other portal rule' and some questionable PR from its management. The portal looked to have found the right path under former agent Tebb's leadership which began in late 2020.

The majority agent-owned enterprise made a small net profit in 2020 and has been close to breaking even since then. However, despite increasing revenue and ARPA the company's latest missive to the market in July had some industry commentators worried about the falling number of agents listing on OnTheMarket.

The startup is "positioned as a dating service for tenants and landlords" according to its communications team, while its goal is to compete with the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla.

Krispyhouse is free to list for landlords and offers an instant messaging service for tenants and landlords to communicate in real-time—which will require tenants to create a free account to use. A private video calling is also included.

Krispyhouse intends to raise a funding round through Crowdcube, with the company's website linking to a "register your interest" to invest in the startup for as little as £10.

According to the company's website, a successful investment will lead to a UK-wide expansion among other things.

The company's founder is Anthony Kyriacou, an entrepreneur and real estate agent with a specialism in rental property. He said:

"People are time poor these days, so a rental property site that can provide a streamlined user experience is crucial. Krispyhouse allows renters, landlords and estate agents to ‘get a move on’, with an easier and quicker way to manage housing communications.

"We are excited to have launched our funding round on CrowdCube, to support our growth and ambition to offer a UK-wide service."

According to the Google Play Store, the krispyhouse app has so far amassed circa 100 downloads.

The startup has already partnered up with rental agencies including Zevet Properties and Highcastle Estates—with roughly 2300 rental listings currently available on its platform.

Krispyhouse is the third challenger to emerge out of the UK in 2023, following behind Jangle and Jitty.

The new tag will show listings that have had their status changed from 'Under Offer' or 'Sold Subject to Contract' back to 'For Sale'.

The UK's number two portal says it added the new tag in response to high fall-through rates—with approximately 40% of sales failing to complete at the moment.

Additionally, properties with the Back to Market tag will be pushed to the top of the results page, and the tag looks like this:

Source: Zoopla.co.uk — the property initially listed in April 2023

Zoopla says it will also work to educate consumers on being more forgiving of listings that are returning to the market, with home buyers unfairly assuming that a return to the market is a sign of failings during the survey process—when more likely causes a deal fall through include the rejection of a mortgage or a break in the chain.

Nikki Cole, director of national sales at Zoopla, said:

"We’re pleased to launch this much-requested feature for our agent's customers—which should provide a simple way for them to boost interest for a property that has just come back to the market.

"Back to the market properties often have serious sellers that are willing to progress with a sale and we’re looking forward to highlighting this to the thousands of in-market buyers that visit our website and social channels every month."

Zoopla, the long-time number-two portal behind market leader Rightmove, posted a £6.2M loss in 2022 despite increasing its revenue by nearly 20% year-on-year.

Zoopla's parent company Zoopla Property Group's property division was recently rebranded as Houseful.

The programme will see Kyero work with fellow UK-based financial services provider Lumon, which specialises in secure currency exchange for real estate transactions.

Gemma Coles, CEO at Kyero, said:

"Our aim is to provide the international property buyer with as much support as we can to make moving to Europe as easy as possible. With large numbers of our users actively looking for additional insight and information, this is a natural next step to add to our existing offering. With targeted services we can enhance the user experience and build upon Kyero’s position within the international property market.

"This is also an important step into the transactional space for Kyero. Our positioning and media reach allows partners to educate, engage and convert potential customers. We are excited about the potential that exists in the new programme."

Vic Darvey, CEO at Lumon, said:

"The partnership between Lumon and Kyero is a natural fit, with both companies sharing a common goal to empower international property buyers and provide them with a seamless journey from property search to purchase.

"By combining Lumon's expertise in currency exchange with Kyero's industry-leading property portal, we aim to create a one-stop solution that simplifies and streamlines the currency exchange process for international property buyers, making it more accessible and transparent worldwide."

In accounts filed with Companies House, the company said that the increase in revenue was due to "price rises and the end of free of charge contracts offered during the Covid-19 pandemic".

The decreased yearly loss was a result of the rise in revenue but also thanks to a reduction in impairment related to investment in its subsidiaries (Techniweb, Websky and Yourkeys). Overall, impairment fell from £12.1 million in 2021 to £8.3 million in 2022.

The accounts note that these subsidiaries are being bypassed in order for Zoopla to focus on its flagship Alto Saas product which is managed under the parent entity (ZPG Property Services Holdings UK Ltd) with the company continuing to invest heavily in new products and marketing.

Zoopla, which was taken private by US private equity firm Silver Lake in 2018, is the closest challenger to Rightmove in the UK market. The company recently renamed its property division as 'Houseful' and outsourced customer support services.

OneDome introduces school proximity search

UK challenger OneDome has added a new functionality to its search portal that lets users find listings based on their proximity to preferred schools.

Buyers can now search by the name of their selected school, with an interactive map showing matching results.

Babek Ismayil, founder at OneDome, said:

"Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important decisions parents make, and proximity is a crucial factor when schools decide who to allocate their places to.

"Not only can the location of your home help you integrate with the school community, but it’s also futureproofing your investment.

"A family home near a good or outstanding school will always be in demand."

Realestate.co.nz introduces Tāhū, the real estate robot

Real estate stakeholders in New Zealand can now call upon Tāhū to ease the listing process for agents, vendors and administrators.

A New Zealand first for property portals, Tāhū has already improved accuracy and made the listing process faster.

Powered by Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Tāhū can interact with various applications or websites like a human would while streamlining repetitive processes such as data entry.

Realestate.co.nz says that the robot currently does around 40% of all manual listing bookings and saves staff around 40 hours a week—which will increase as it gets smarter.

Sarah Wood, CEO at realestate.co.nz, said:

"Several listings can't be uploaded immediately to our site every day due to missing information. Tāhū means we will have another set of eyes constantly scouring the system, checking new listings for missing information, and notifying the real estate agent when there may be something they have missed – likely before they've even noticed the listing isn't live."

OnTheMarket introduces Anti-Money Laundering integration

UK challenger OnTheMarket has improved its offering by integrating digital ID and source of funds provider Thirdfort.

Using NFC technology, Thirdfort's app reads and verifies digital signatures and signing keys for thousands of identity documents issued by governments worldwide. International addresses can be verified via Experian data, with 23 jurisdictions covered globally.

OnTheMarket clients will be able to use the Thirdfort integration to handle Right to Rent checks through the portal's TecLet platform.

Source of funds checking will be completed using Open Banking, while PEPs and sanctions screening are included, and 12-month monitoring is also available.

Alan Blockley, CEO at TecLet, said:

"The integration of AML solution Thirdfort within the TecCRM platform builds on our commitment to providing our users with access to best in class, compliant solutions across our suite of products."

Patrick Brierley, partnerships manager at Thirdfort, said:

"We are delighted to integrate our compliance products with OnTheMarket Software and to be able to provide our mutual clients with, what we believe to be, the leading digital ID and source of funds service available in the market today."

Otodom adds free Otodom Concierge service offering

Otodom, The Polish real estate arm of  OLX Group, has launched a free-to-use concierge service for all listings.

Users can use the service to get help from dedicated Otodom Concierge experts to simplify the home search process according to their preferred criteria for their favoured properties.

Users will also receive alerts for new listings that match their needs—and will even be able to request individual offers from sellers.

Xinyi adds AI functions for home searches

Sinyi.com.tw, a leading property portal in Taiwan, has added AI-optimised matching during home searches.

A story from Chinese publication NowNews reports that Xinyi Housing (Sinyi) is the first in the industry to launch to AI smart matching to help consumers filter properties that match more closely to their individual needs, which has been a historically difficult task for homebuyers.

The company has reported a 200% increase in transaction rates since the launch of the AI—which leverages big data—and has won the Silver Award for Best Technical Innovation and Best Product Innovation in the 2023 Innovation Business Awards.

Xinyi says its database of more than 40 years of housing data (it was founded in 1981) is a big contributor to the success of the AI integration, which boasts significantly higher accuracy thanks to the vast range of text, image, and geographical and spatial data at its disposal.

Xinyi has incorporated digital products and services including smart tours, real estate e-passports and mortgages into its portal.

Xinyi operates in Chaina, Japan and Southeast Asia.

SeLoger Neuf Launches Neo Extend to improve qualified leads

Leading French portal SeLoger has launched a new solution that the company says will increase the number of qualified leads for agents.

The solution is for the 'Neuf' (New) arm of SeLoger's real estate operation, which focuses on new-build properties in major markets across France.

Agents using Neo Extend will benefit from a number of perks including simultaneous advertisements of listings across four domains (SeLoger, Logic-Immo Neuf, Seloger, and Logic-Immo).

Listings will be featured prominently on each platform for the first month, as well as extra ads sent via email to highly qualified targets. SeLoger will also expand the listings' visibility to extra postcodes to improve visibility for those properties that would otherwise not show up in searches.

Finally, a retargeting system will show ads to prospects who have submitted specific searches on high-profile websites including Le Monde and L'Equipe.

Franck Le Tendre, vice-president responsible for Operations at AVIV France (SeLoger Meilleurs Agents Group), said:

"Neo Extend boosts the visibility of programs in an unprecedented way by bringing together in a single offer the power of leading sites, the effectiveness of retargeting and the expansion to an additional quality audience.

"As the market tightens, it is a simple and effective solution that allows professionals to significantly increase the number of their contacts and achieve their business objectives."

After a career of successful product launches at businesses including Wise, Klarna and Deliveroo, Paterson and co-founders James Storer and Daniel Cooper are ready to launch what they believe is a much-needed alternative to the likes of Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket.

"Finding the right home online is a horrible experience," he says. "But wherever there is complexity, there is an opportunity for technology to simplify it."

Thus, Jitty was born.

From the incredible power of Artificial Intelligence to pre-seeding funding and monetisation, here are ten questions with Graham Paterson. Enjoy!

(l-r) Rita Sijelmass, Graham Paterson, James Storer, Daniel Cooper

What problem does Jitty solve?

Finding the right home online is a horrible experience. People want a single place to see every home and understand more about those homes. We’re giving homebuyers, and anyone interested in properties, a fun and comprehensive way to see what’s out there.

What USP will you bring to the real estate industry?

We’ve built great user experiences for brands including Deliveroo, Wise, and Klarna.

In our past roles, we’ve built AI systems, complex technologies, as well as pixel-perfect apps. We’re bringing all that experience and focus to delight users in the housing market.

What was the clincher about your model that convinced investors to take a $2M punt on Jitty?

I think it’s pretty straightforward—we’re using AI to disrupt residential real estate, which is the world’s largest asset class by a very long way. It’s a huge market that hasn’t seen meaningful change from a user perspective for a long time.

As a team we’ve built this stuff before, so we probably bring some credibility there.

It’s now a case of building a great product as fast as we can. We’re solving that by hiring a great team, and we’ll invest in bringing in the best people to do that.

How will you harness AI to improve property transactions for the public?

Home buying is incredibly complex in many different ways. From budgeting to choosing an area, choosing a home, making the right offer, and navigating the transaction process. Wherever there is complexity, there’s an opportunity for technology to simplify it. AI is just another technology that people can use to make things smoother. 

For Jitty, that means collating every home on the market and gathering more information about those homes. There’s no limit to where it can go, with generative AI.

You told me Jitty will act purely as a search platform. How will you monetise the business?

Generally, the market has shown that people still want an estate agent to sell their home. Estate agents have specialist knowledge and skills, and we can help homebuyers best by working with estate agents.

We’ll make money in pretty standard ways for marketplaces: advertising and premium features. What we are certain about is that we won’t charge estate agents to list their homes, ever.

What incentives beyond “list for free” will you offer to agents?

From talking to lots of estate agents, we know that paying so much for listing with multiple portals is one of their main concerns. And we’ve had lots of agents sign up already, so it looks like it’s a strong selling point on its own.

What will the product look like for agents and users?

For estate agents, it’s mainly just hooking up to their data feeds to start with. They can already do this on the agents tab of our website (jitty.com).

For users, it’ll be a mixture of classic marketplace experiences, and some new features that we’re cooking up.

Homebuyers can expect to be able to search for anything they want, learn more about homes, and share with their friends.

What is the general profile of the agencies that have signed up to your waiting list?

There’s a real mix! Some smaller agencies, and a few major chains. Some are really experienced, and some are newer to the game.

It’s really cool to see that we’ve struck a chord with many different types of agents.

What are your short-, medium- and long-term visions for Jitty?

Short-term we want to help people find the best home for them.

Medium-term, we want to help them manage the whole transaction.

Long-term we want to help the whole world move into their perfect home. Just like Spotify did for music, or YouTube for videos, we want to be the app for interacting with the property market.

How do you see the portal scene evolving, and how will you stay ahead of the curve?

It’s pretty hard to predict. Some obvious innovations like in-app bookings haven’t happened yet, and new technologies like generative AI are creating weird and wonderful things that we never dreamed of. 

We’re staying ahead of the pack by focusing relentlessly on users and creating the best team and environment to help our users. A big trap I’ve seen others fall into is focussing on competitors, and ignoring the people they serve.

The newly-named Houseful is a better reflection of ZPG's evolution from a property website to a wider-reaching model, says the firm. Houseful is the owner of brands including Alto, Jupix, Calcasa, Mojo, Hometrack and Prime Location.

Zoopla's portal will operate as normal under its original name and branding.

Charlie Bryant, CEO at Houseful, said:

"We believe a more connected property market makes for better home choices, experiences, and businesses.

"The whole business is excited and energised by the opportunities unlocked by our new company name and brand, which better showcases the breadth of the solutions we are delivering into the market.

"While this is exciting news, it’s very much business as usual as our teams continue to serve our customers with the solutions they are using to run their business today."

LinkedIn has already been updated to show that Zoopla is a part of Houseful—which also has its own branding.

Zoopla says it has seen an improvement in several key performance indicators since it outsourced its customer support team in May of this year.

Customers will be able to access an exclusive offering whereby 80% of ESPC's listings are published 72 hours before appearing on any other portal.

The campaign also includes messaging for accessing need-to-know property information that helps buyers act confidently and quickly, including instant access to free Home Reports.

ESPC will use the marketing collateral across OOH (out-of-house) advertising and digital spaces, social media, and some live TV services across Scotland.

Leanne Watson, head of marketing at ESPC, said:

"The Scottish property market is currently extremely competitive, and in our latest campaign, we wanted to show how using ESPC can really help buyers gain a crucial advantage.

“The campaign is fun, fresh and offers a light-hearted look at one of the major benefits that using ESPC brings to buyers in a competitive market, literally propelling you to the front of the pack and giving you access to hundreds of properties three days before anyone else sees them."