I know, didn't the National Association of Estate Agents launch a Rightmove-killer almost exactly a year ago? And yet... the big guns Rightmove and Primelocation and independent search engines such as Nestoria all live on.

Now, according to an Estate Agent Today scoop:

A new portal run by agents for agents is to launch on Monday. Radar Homes is aimed at breaking Rightmove’s virtual monopoly, and is already being hailed as the potential internet breakthrough that agents have been waiting for.

Radar (not, it must be stressed, an NAEA product) is being launched by three NAEA members (who clearly can't be satisfied by the NAEA's PropertyLive) Mark Flynn, Julian Partridge and Jon Williams, and the business model consists of charging agents a one-off £100 joining fee (rising to £200 shortly), for which they get a share in the company. Then £45 per month per branch pays for unlimited property listings. But the success/failure of the portal will ultimately depend on how attractive it is for the end-user, not the agents, and property portals and search engines have both come along a lot recently. The bar is set high. According to EAT, the engine will be based on technology provided by (slow-loading and slightly hit-and-miss, in our experience) online property dating service HomeSwapShop.

Radar Homes launches on Monday.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents