New property portal On The Market
06 February 2015 London
Image: Shutterstock
The launch of On the Market has marked the entry of a third online property portal in the UK backed by agents, in an attempt to break the duopoly of the two largest players; Rightmove and Zoopla.
The company, backed by an industry consortium of six founding property agencies, has reportedly signed up 3000 estate agents and, most importantly, only allows members to join only one of either Zoopla or Rightmove.
Investors have so far shown little sign of bearishness towards Rightmove whose demand to borrow currently stands at a very low 0.6 percent of shares are outstanding.
Zoopla, on the other hand, has been relatively shunned by investors and favoured by short sellers.
Its stock has declined 22 percent since listing last year and short sellers have aggressively increased positions as analysts cut forecasts.
Analyst at Markit, Relte Schutte, commented: 鈥淧erhaps most worrying for investors is the fact that the firm has recently cut its revenue forecast, citing competition and issues signing new customers. Short interest has increased over by 42 percent this year alone, with a total of 5 percent of shares outstanding currently out on loan.鈥�
Analysts have forecast twice the sales growth expected for Rightmove of 16 percent compared to Zoopla for the year ending December 2015.
Zoopla is now three times smaller by market capitalisation. On a price multiple basis, Zoopla trades 1.5 times higher than Rightmove, with analysts forecasting both stocks to revert to 23 times earnings in 2015.
The company, backed by an industry consortium of six founding property agencies, has reportedly signed up 3000 estate agents and, most importantly, only allows members to join only one of either Zoopla or Rightmove.
Investors have so far shown little sign of bearishness towards Rightmove whose demand to borrow currently stands at a very low 0.6 percent of shares are outstanding.
Zoopla, on the other hand, has been relatively shunned by investors and favoured by short sellers.
Its stock has declined 22 percent since listing last year and short sellers have aggressively increased positions as analysts cut forecasts.
Analyst at Markit, Relte Schutte, commented: 鈥淧erhaps most worrying for investors is the fact that the firm has recently cut its revenue forecast, citing competition and issues signing new customers. Short interest has increased over by 42 percent this year alone, with a total of 5 percent of shares outstanding currently out on loan.鈥�
Analysts have forecast twice the sales growth expected for Rightmove of 16 percent compared to Zoopla for the year ending December 2015.
Zoopla is now three times smaller by market capitalisation. On a price multiple basis, Zoopla trades 1.5 times higher than Rightmove, with analysts forecasting both stocks to revert to 23 times earnings in 2015.
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