Since its launch just over a year ago, Boomin has built its momentum on the basis of offering agents free use of the platform and claimed earlier this year to have 8,000 agents on board.

But agents have been required to pay to list properties on the platform since the start of April, and this has inevitably left many people wondering how many companies have signed up as paying customers.

Would the 8,000 agents get on board with paying for the platform or would they simply leave?

Although the free period finished on 1 April 2022, it is still not clear what the uptake from paying agents looks like, despite a request from EYE at the end of March.

Instead of providing solid indications of how successfully the move to the paid-for model is going, Boomin had, until recently, focussed on drip-feeding a list of paying agents 10 or 20 at a time over the past few weeks, and that included naming Foxtons, as part of yet another tightly controlled public relations campaign.

Yesterday, OnTheMarket adopted a Boomin-style PR announcement when it confirmed that it had finally secured Foxtons as a client, with the London based estate agency, which has more than 50 interconnected branches across the capital, agreeing to list all its properties at OnTheMarket.com.

But unlike Boomin, OnTheMarket has revealed how many agents are listing properties on its portal – see below.

OnTheMarket sees the agreement with Foxtons as a major coup for its property portal, which until now had opted not to list its properties on the platform.

The agreement may signal a change of marketing strategy for Foxtons, which already lists properties with a number of other property portals, including Rightmove and Zoopla, not to mention Boomin.

The fresh marketing approach has almost certainly been driven by the company’s recently appointed CEO, Guy Gittins, formerly of Chestertons, which was one of OnTheMarket’s founding estate agencies.

Jason Tebb, CEO of OnTheMarket, commented: “We have been working hard to enhance our offer, adding products and services to deliver greater value to agents and consumers.

“Being recognised by Foxtons is further proof that our strategy is working and there is more to come as we continue to develop our differentiated, technology-enabled property business.”

OnTheMarket reports strong set of results despite fewer agent numbers