Brett Stone issues a second open letter to shareholders of OnTheMarket

London, 31 July 2023 – Today, Brett Stone released a second open letter to shareholders of OnTheMarket plc. (LSE: OTMP). The letter includes details about OnTheMarket’s poor performance, corporate governance issues, and failure to prevent Rightmove’s excessive price increases.

Brett also provides information about his attempts to provide OnTheMarket the additional expertise and capital needed to deliver attractive returns for shareholders and simple compelling products for customers at speed and scale.

 

Key points Brett makes within the letter include:

(1) OnTheMarket are underinvesting in their products, teams and business handing an easy win to Rightmove and resulting in the loss of estate agent customers, fewer listings, less visits to their site, slowing revenue growth and a declining share price.

(2) Since OnTheMarket listed in February 2018, shareholders have seen the value of their investment decline by two-thirds, customers have seen their aggregate property portal costs more than double, and the property commerce category in the United Kingdom has remained slow, inefficient and stressful for estate agents and consumers.

(3) OnTheMarket are losing customers with 1,084 estate agent branches lost last year and more than expected being lost so far this year. (Rightmove lost 178 branches last year as a comparison). Portal visits are down 14% and revenue growth slowed in the second half to up £0.4 million or 2.4%.

(4) OnTheMarket is irresponsibly diluting shareholders and granting options to insiders. OnTheMarket issued 19.5 million new shares since IPO and has granted 13.2 million options.

(5) OnTheMarket are making public statements which do not appear to be based in reality or supported by evidence (examples of which are examined in an appendix to Brett Stone’s open letter) and do not appear to be acting in the best interests of customers, shareholders, or consumers.

EAN Breaking News

Breaking News from the team at Estate Agent Networking. Have a new story to share with us? Then please get in contact today! When and where we can we will refer to third party websites with a 'live link back' where news was released first.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

London property no longer a safe bet as real-terms prices slide

Inner London stagnates: Wandsworth, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster saw annual growth of less than 0.5% between 2016 and 2024, new Rathbones research reveals. Southwark in freefall: Average house prices fell by 2% over the past eight years. Outer London underperforms: Even Bexley, the best-performing borough, only saw 2.8% annual growth –…
Read More
Breaking News

Low deposit mortgage choice boosted to 17-year high

Moneyfacts UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report data reveals the combined choice of higher loan-to-value mortgages (90% and 95% LTV) rose to its highest count in 17 years. These deals combined represent 19% of the residential mortgage market overall, where choice is at an 18-year high. Month-on-month the overall average two- and five-year fixed mortgage rates…
Read More
Breaking News

Property market beset by delays as conveyancer queries vary by an ‘alarming’ 8,176%

The scale of inefficiency in the property market was laid bare today by new analysis that reveals some conveyancers receive 83 times as many Land Registry queries as others. The number of requests sent to conveyancers to progress cases varied by an “alarming” 8,176%, ranging from 2.9 per 100 applications to 237, new analysis of…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 8/09/25

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X. MetaWealth and One United Partners launch €18 million tokenized real estate bonds opportunity in Bucharest Press Release London, UK & Bucharest, Romania Sept 2025  MetaWealth, a tokenised real estate investment platform, today launched a €17.9 million bonds basket targeting 19% annual returns, as part of its…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

Hodge adds 95% LTV to Resi and Resi Retire propositions to support borrowers with complex income

New 95% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage options have been added to Hodge’s Resi and Resi Retire propositions, giving customers from age 21 with varied income types greater access to the property market. These latest enhancements align with Hodge’s wider shift towards “lifelong lending”, bringing together core residential and retirement propositions, where lending is based on a…
Read More
Breaking News

Younger generations see homeownership as less important

The latest research from Yopa has revealed how attitudes towards homeownership vary between generations, showing that while the majority still aspire to own, its perceived importance has waned among younger buyers who also find the path to ownership more challenging than their parents did. Yopa surveyed* Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z to…
Read More