I have spent quite a few months developing a website for the canadian real estate market. The problem is that having a nice site is just part of the bigger picture. When I set the site live i had a handful of agents (all free - non paying) that listed their portfolios. I tried calling many agents to see if they were interested but fell on deaf ears. I needed more traffic as the more traffic I have the more easy it is to attract new agents so i joined a syndicate that would give me over 10,000 properties. GREAT! - or so I thought, it now looks like agents like my site but instead of signing up they are going straight to the syndicate and signing up with them!!!!!!

What has a man got to do to set up a low cost (to the agent) quality property portal?

You may want to check out the post at http://www.agentsonline.net/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/233401/1.html - which deals with the same issue about how to get agents participation in a property portal.