It has been eight months since CoStar acquired OnTheMarket (OTM) in a bid to challenge the dominance of Rightmove and Zoopla.
Having established itself as the UK’s third largest portal in terms of consumer traffic and agent support, CoStar firmly believes that OTM is now on course to replace Zoopla as the number two property portal on its way to achieving its medium-term objective of challenging the market leader, Rightmove.
Until now, a lack of consumer traffic has meant that OTM has never quite managed to succeed in winning over the homebuyer audience but new data provided by CoStar suggests that OTM has made some inroads into this highly competitive market under its ownership.
In terms of OTM’s aim to challenge Zoopla and Rightmove head-on in terms of traffic, CoStar says that average monthly visits for OTM in June were 35 million, up 78% compared to the same month last year.
When it comes to listing agreements with agents, CoStar reports that OTM now has close to 17,000 agent branches advertising (for context, Rightmove’s figure for FY24 was 17,875). However, it is important to note that this surge has been helped by a free listings offer as some agents sign up to a trial period on the portal.
The latest OTM update comes as CoStar posted its figures for the second quarter of 2024, revealing that revenue was $678m (£526m), a 12% increase year-on-year.
Double-digit quarterly revenue growth has become the norm for CoStar with the S&P 500 company having now registered more than 50 consecutive quarters of double-digit year-on-year growth.
CoStar’s latest figures were fuelled in large part by its rentals marketplace Apartments.com which saw revenue climb 18% year-on-year to $264m (£205m). CoStar’s other major revenue driver is its eponymous real estate information service which saw revenue grow 10% to $253m (£196m).
Despite currently representing less than 4% of the company’s overall business, shareholders and analysts were focused on CoStar’s Residential segment.
The company has been making headlines as it looks to increase exposure to in residential property portals sector with a $1bn (£780m) marketing investment for Homes.com in the U.S. and plans to spend £46.5m in the first year of a multi-year investment initiative here in the UK on OTM.
