Legal & General estate agents franchise, the Xperience Group, has pledged its support for plans to develop a major new property portal which will challenge the dominance of Rightmove and Zoopla.
Xperience is the latest agency franchise to join Agents’ Mutual, a company founded by some of the leading estate and lettings agents in the UK to create a new property portal website.
Agents’ Mutual will be owned 100% by the agent firms which list on its portal and each agent firm will become a member of the company thereby having an equal shared interest in it.
The portal has the medium term aim of setting listing fees at the minimum level consistent with developing and maintaining itself as one of the leading portals in the UK. It will focus on providing the best possible service to member agents, their customers and the wider, property-seeking public. It will not carry third-party advertising nor promote services which would compete with those of its members.
Xperience Group is a network of franchised offices operating under four regional estate and lettings agency brands: Whitegates, operating in the Midlands, the North of England and North Wales; CJ Hole, operating across Cheltenham, Bristol, North Somerset and the South West; Parkers, operating in Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire; and Ellis & Co, with offices across London and Kent.
Michael Stoop, managing director of Xperience, said: “Agents’ Mutual’s plans for a 100% agent-owned portal is a necessary response by independent estate and lettings agents to the imbalance of power which has developed between them and the two large portal groups. This has manifested itself in an unjustifiable escalation in fees for listing and other digital advertising products and also in the increasing presence of what are, essentially, non-agent businesses listing properties alongside those of full-service agents. We believe Agents’ Mutual can deliver a first-class portal which offers a permanently low-cost and safe alternative for all agents.”
Helen Whiteley, commercial director at Agents’ Mutual, said: “We are delighted to have the support of the Xperience network of leading agencies. As well as adding further to the roll of leading brands which have declared their backing, it further deepens our coverage around the country and helps provide the platform for further growth.”
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