NEW property website OnTheMarket.com launched at the beginning of this week in what is seen by many as a potential game-changer for the property market.

The property portal has been set up by Agents’ Mutual, founded by a group of leading agents including Savills, Strutt & Parker and Knight Frank.

Aimed at competing head-on with Rightmove and Zoopla, who have enjoyed an unrivalled duopoly, the website claims to have the support of more than 4,600 estate and letting agency branches nationwide. And in a controversial move agents who sign up to it will do so on the condition that they stop listing on one of the other two property portals.

Many local agents have signed up with OnTheMarket, including Perry Bishop and Chambers and Sawyers, while Moore Allen & Innocent has told the Standard that it is in the process of doing so.

Rupert Sturgis, partner and office head at Knight Frank in Cirencester, described the launch as: “An exciting advance in the web listing of property for sale ensuring vendors across the country have the best exposure and buyers can see the biggest selection of what’s available on one dedicated site.” Knight Frank will continue to place its properties on Rightmove.

Cotswolds property specialists Butler Sherborn also announced its involvement with the new website and said that it would be featuring all of its properties at OnTheMarket.com as well as continuing to place them on Rightmove. Sam Butler, founding partner at Butler Sherborn said: “We believe OnTheMarket.com will rapidly grow to become a major player in the portal market because it will provide a highly effective platform for our vendor and landlord clients and be a great place to launch new properties onto the market.”

Chief executive of OnTheMarket.com, Ian Springett, said: “It’s been a brilliant opening day for Britain’s new major property portal. The response from our member agents has been overwhelmingly positive and we are seeing record expressions of interest from agents who are now considering coming on board.”