Every independent agent has done this arithmetic at least once, usually in the week the portal invoice arrives. Take the annual figure, look at the enquiries it produced, and wonder aloud what would happen if you simply stopped.
Here is the honest answer, which is not the one the anti-portal pitch gives you: almost nobody should leave, and that is the wrong question anyway.
Why leaving usually fails
The portals are where buyers and tenants start. Not because they are better, but because they are the habit, and habits outlast pricing decisions. An agency that withdraws does not redirect that demand to its own site. It becomes invisible to the people who never learn it exists.
The agencies that have left successfully share two things almost nobody else has: a genuinely dominant local brand, and enough instructions that vendors approach them rather than the reverse. If you are not both of those, leaving is not a cost saving, it is a supply problem.
There is also the vendor side. Sellers ask which portals you list on, and "none" is a conversation you have to win on every single valuation. That is a lot of ground to give up to save a fee.
The better question
Not "should we leave" but what share of our enquiries could arrive without a fee attached, and what would it take to move that share.
That reframes it from a decision you make once into something you improve continuously, and it does not require giving anything up. Every listing you publish in both places costs you nothing extra beyond the publishing.
Work out your own number first. Divide what you pay a portal in a year by the enquiries it produced. Most agents have never calculated this and are surprised by it in both directions. Then look at what your own site produced over the same period. The gap between those two numbers is the size of the opportunity, and it is usually much larger than the invoice suggests, because a direct enquiry also arrives without three competitors listed underneath it.
What moves the share
- Publish everything on your own site first, and say so. "Available on our site before it reaches the portals" is a real reason to bookmark you, and it costs nothing because you were going to list it anyway.
- Own the searches the portals ignore. Named areas, villages, school catchments, developments. This is the traffic that is genuinely winnable, and it is covered in local SEO for a one-location business.
- Be the better version of the same listing. Portals cap your photographs, truncate your descriptions and forbid your contact details. Your own listing has none of those limits. How to write a property listing is the practical guide.
- Capture the vendor, not just the buyer. A portal sends you people who want to buy. Your own site is the only place you can systematically ask for valuations, which is the side that pays. See how to get more valuation requests.
- Make the enquiry easy and fast. A direct enquiry that goes unanswered for a day teaches somebody to use the portal next time.
What to expect
Not a collapse in portal spend. A slow shift, measured in what share of enquiries arrive directly, from a low number to a meaningfully less low one over a year or two. That shift is worth real money because those enquiries carry no fee, no competitor beside them, and they belong to you.
The agencies that get anywhere with this treat the portals as paid acquisition and their own site as the thing they own, and they are not conflicted about running both. Our take on the portal question sets out where a site of your own genuinely wins and where it does not.
Frequently asked questions
Should estate agents leave the property portals?
Almost certainly not. Portals are where buyers and tenants start, and withdrawing makes you invisible to people who never learn you exist rather than redirecting them to your site. It also costs you ground on every valuation, because vendors ask which portals you list on. Run both and work on the share instead.
How do I work out what a property portal costs me per enquiry?
Divide what you pay that portal in a year by the number of enquiries it produced in the same period. Then do the same for your own website. Most agents have never calculated either figure, and the gap between them is the size of the opportunity.
How can an agency get more direct enquiries?
Publish listings on your own site first and say that you do, write the fuller version of the listing that portals will not allow, win the local searches portals treat as an afterthought, ask for valuations rather than only handling buyer enquiries, and answer direct enquiries faster than you answer portal ones.
Is it worth listing on both my own site and the portals?
Yes, and it costs almost nothing extra since the listing is written either way. Every enquiry that arrives through your own site instead has no fee attached, no competitor listings underneath it, and stays yours.