OnTheMarket sees slight recovery after update

The price of shares in AIM-listed property listings site OnTheMarket (LON:OTMP) increased by 6% to 34.45p (as of 15:00 BST) after a new update on how COVID-19 has impacted trading. Management said that it had furloughed some staff and reduced the number of temporary and sub-contracted employees, cut discretionary marketing spending, and reduced the remuneration of the board, executive management, and the majority of employees able to continue working remotely by 20%. It is too early for the company to estimate the full impact of COVID-19 on the current year’s results but the estate agency industry has been heavily affected by the introduction of movement restrictions.

Acting CEO Clive Beattie commented: “Our main concern at this time is for the health and safety of all our colleagues and I would like to thank them for their dedication and professionalism during this time.

“We continue to do all that we can to support our customers, many of whom are also our shareholders, through this period. Agents across the country are reconsidering their portal marketing choices and we continue to engage with agents attracted by our unique agent ownership model and our strategic commitment, as the agents’ portal, to a policy of low, fair pricing, both in the short term and sustainably into the future.

“The steps we are taking to conserve cash and to assist agents are appropriate to ensure we weather the current crisis and come through ready to provide our customers a market leading, fairly priced portal service“.