citylets.co.uk has contacted propertyadguru.com sister website Property Portal Watch with concerns over the activities of one of the portal’s competitors - propertypal.com.
citylets.co.uk is a rental property portal covering Scotland and Northern Ireland, while propertypal.com focuses only on Northern Irish property.
citylets.co.uk regional sales manager Mark Crossey has raised concerns about propertypal.com’s practices, alleging that the portal builds websites for agents and then sends leads to agents from these websites via emails that are branded to propertypal.com.
“It beggars belief that a property portal in this day and age would attempt to build websites for agents and have emails from those sites arrive in client inboxes stripped of their own brand name and replaced with the name of the property portal as the originator,” Crossey says. “I would have thought it was illegal. Our disappointment encountering this in Northern Ireland has been matched only by the determination of management at propertypal.com and owners UTV New Media to defend such operations over the last six months. My concern is that this sort of thing breeds distrust of property portals in general and all will be tarred by the same brush.”
When contacted by Property Portal Watch, propertypal.com provided the following statement:
“As one of the many digital media services and offerings that propertypal.com provide estate agents with, we also provide website development, and support for our clients. Whilst it is true that both the main propertypal.com website, and the estate agents websites provide substantial quantities of leads, a clear and transparent monthly breakdown is provided to estate agents as to how many came from their own website, and how many came from propertypal.com. Our focus is and will always be on lead generation.
propertypal.com has spent significantly on TV, radio and online campaigns to drive consumers to our unique web portal. We have had no complaints about the substantial volume of leads we generate for all of our customers on propertypal.com or through our portal to the agents. The provision of a detailed breakdown accurately highlights to agents how leads are generated and originated.”
In terms of listings, propertypal.com has a much greater share of the Northern Irish market - it claims to have 60,818 properties online, compared to citylets.co.uk’s 3,084. citylets.co.uk was established in 1999 and is privately owned, while propertypal.com was set up in 2007 and has since been acquired by UTV, a Northern Irish news company.
What’s your take on citylet.co.uk’s concerns? Let us know in our comments.
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