Rental portal Citylets.co.uk has published strong results for 2011 with visitor traffic up 22% on 2010 and enquiries to agents up by 21%.

The performance cements the Scottish-based company’s position as the UK’s most visited dedicated residential lettings site.

The continued growth means Citylets traffic has increased by 200% since 2007, the year the company launched its quarterly datareport into the state of Scotland’s rental market.

Thomas Ashdown, founder and MD of Citylets said: "We’re delighted to maintain our strong growth trajectory with a 22% rise in traffic in 2011.

"We operated in broadly the same geographies as 2010 and are confident these results reflect not just a growth in the rental market, but a growth in our market share.

"Traffic to Citylets is now three times what it was just four years ago."

According to Experian Hitwise, the online intelligence agency, Citylets’ average monthly rank in the property category (based on UK visits) in 2011 was higher than any other dedicated residential letting site. Citylets was also the only site in its genre to maintain a top 100 position throughout the year & was regularly the most visited lettings site in the UK.


Agent offices on site (Scotland and Northern Ireland) grew over the year to 450, up 12.5% from the previous year.

One of the most interesting findings by Citylets is that more than half of all its Scottish clients are not on Rightmove, the UKs largest property site.

Thomas added: "Rightmove may be the UK’s biggest site, however in Scotland Citylets is the clear market leader for lettings with 54% of our clients not subscribed to Rightmove.

"In major cities like Edinburgh and Dundee, that increases to 85% and in Aberdeen it’s currently 65%. These figures suggest that in urban Scotland, Citylets attracts the larger audiences relevant to our local clients.

"Indeed the figures seem to underline the fact that property markets are predominantly local and it is local presence that counts, not over-arching UK visitor numbers."

Citylets was set up in 1999, remains under independent ownership and is managed in Edinburgh by its founding team.

Already 2012 looks set to be another interesting year for the company which promises improved site functionality for visitors and a suite of new products for agents.

As well as being the UK’s number one residential letting portal, Citylets established its quarterly datareports in 2007 to fill a knowledge gap about the Scottish rental market. Although more than one in 10 homes in Scotland is rented privately, there was little detailed information about the sector.

With more than 50,000 rental transactions per year in Scotland, involving over 400 agents Citylets now produces a comprehensive quarterly datareport, which is established as the definitive guide among landlords, investors and letting agents.

(GK)