NEWSFLASH: Yet more record results for Rightmove as profits and revenues surge

| Rosalind Renshaw

Rightmove announced both revenues and profits up in the first half of this year, driven by growth in its agency and new homes business. Agents contributed growth of £7.9m, driven by membership fee increases as well as purchases of additional advertising packages.

Overall, revenue rose 11% to £119.5m, with underlying profits up 11% to £91m, and operating profits up 9% to £87.6m. Its operating margin was 76.2%.

Rightmove will be paying an increased interim dividend of 22p to shareholders.

It also announced record numbers of agents and developers advertising on the portal with numbers up 1% since the start of the year, at 20,358 in total. There was growth in both high street and digital agency numbers.

The average advertiser paid 10% more than this time a year ago, at £911 per month. Agents easily outnumbered new homes advertisers, with a record 17,589 agents listing on Rightmove, paying an average of £865 an office, up from £789 a year ago. As at June 30, nearly 2,000 branches were spending £1,500 per month or more after taking up the Optimiser package launched in 2015.

Revenue from agents stood at £90.6m,  up 10% from the first half of last year (£82.7m).

Record traffic meant that in the first half of the year, Rightmove attracted over 3,000 visits every minute – a record total of 790m visits in six months.

Rightmove also had one third more properties listed on it than any other portal, saying it listed 1.1m properties – almost the entire market. It also said it generated over six times more leads for agents than its nearest competitor.

Peter Brooke-Johnson, chief executive who took up his position this summer, said: “Our aim has always been to help our agents and developers succeed by delivering great value marketing and building strong relationships to support their ambitions.

“This approach continues to serve us well as we have grown our customer base to an all-time high demonstrating that Rightmove is the site of choice, not only for Britain’s home movers, but also its property professionals.

“With consumers and customers becoming increasingly digital our clear market leadership coupled with the value of our products and data positions us well for the future.”

City analyst Anthony Codling of Jefferies said this morning: “Agents might complain and new home developers might moan about the fees they pay to Rightmove, but both are spending more and more.

“At the half year Rightmove’s revenues and underlying operating profits were up 11% each and the operating profit margin was steady at just over 76%, a level which must be hard to swallow for the estate agents battling a tough second-hand housing market.

“Come rain or shine it appears Rightmove is able to make super normal profits.

“Almost 2,000 branches now use the Optimizer package and are spending a minimum of £1,500 per month, up from £1,000 a year ago.

“The Group often refers to a holy grail ARPA [advertising revenue per advertiser]  figure of £2,500  per month and today it is a step closer to that aspiration.”

 

 

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32 Comments

  1. Chris Wood
    July 28, 2017 at 07:21

    An incredible business achievement. The advantage of monopoly. Now, if Rightmove will start by applying its own rules and contractual obligations* to its customers and users of its site, that would be great.

     

    *Allowing hundreds of agents to have access to the site whilst running FSBO software and not having the required legal minimums to operate as agents.

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    1. Simon Bradbury
      July 28, 2017 at 07:28

      HI Chris,

      For Sale By Owner software…can you explain please? Is it agents that run this?

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      1. Chris Wood
        July 28, 2017 at 07:43

        Software and agents that permits its customers to amend, upload, accept and reject viewings, offers etc directly. Nothing wrong with the process it’s just contractually forbidden by Rightmove.  That software is being used by hundreds of agents.

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        1. cyberduck46
          July 28, 2017 at 11:00

          Assuming you are right Chris then wouldn’t you agree that unless Rightmove give a contractual obligation of enforcement in the contract with other Agents then it is up to them how they interpret the contract and whether they want to enforce?

           

          If I, as a Landlord, have a contract with a tenant then it is up to me whether I enforce any of the terms. For example I might have one tenant with a well behaved pet and another with a nuisance pet. I am quite entitled to just enforce against the tenant with the nuisance pet.

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          1. PeeBee
            July 28, 2017 at 16:47

            You’ve never heard of setting a precedent, then – or researched the weight that such a precedent can and will carry in Legal terms…

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          2. Chris Wood
            July 28, 2017 at 17:17

            The law of contract can be quite complicated but, in general terms, it’s quite simple. Any party to that contract can seek specific performance of said contract. QED.

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    2. AgentV
      July 28, 2017 at 07:36

      It’s a great pity that a company that depends so much on the revenue from its customers allows banner adverts all over its site by one company which mocks the vast majority of its other agent customers, deliberately attempting to take vendor business away from them.

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      1. Simon Bradbury
        July 28, 2017 at 07:48

        Respectfully AgentV,

        It may be a “great pity” ( in your view) but isn’t that what nearly all effective advertising platforms do across all business sectors? Allow competing businesses to make legal claims and offers about their good and services?

        Wouldn’t it actually be illegal to prevent such activity in any event?

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        1. Bless You
          July 28, 2017 at 08:00

          pay any way agents shouldnt be allowed on It. Imagine if Foxtons did pay any way at 2.5%. Unethical DIY agents need to be banned . Not on competitive grounds but on honesty. P.s. I also blame on the market but I think they are on their holidays.

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        2. AgentV
          July 28, 2017 at 08:01

          Simon Bradbury. Three or four years ago we had a banner advert on RM. I wanted to put some wording on it listing our fee offer, to help us break into a new area. We were told we  couldn’t put figures on the advert……so in your opinion was that illegal?

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          1. Chrispy
            July 28, 2017 at 08:08

            Agent V, we had the same thing but the rules changed last year from the ASA so were told that we could promote a reduced fee offer as long as it included vat. Seems sensible as it’s now in line with ads everywhere else.

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            1. AgentV
              July 28, 2017 at 08:14

              Then I stand corrected…..but does ‘Everything you would expect, except the commission’ not seem a tad misleading when the vast majority of consumers would expect ‘no sale, no fee’ which has been the norm in our industry for many years?

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              1. Chrispy
                July 28, 2017 at 08:45

                Agent V don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with the way they’re going about their advertising I’m just bored with everyone saying it’s just not fair, complain to the ASA, trading standards and then get out there and prove you’re better.

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      2. Chrispy
        July 28, 2017 at 08:12

        Agent V, this might sound a bit harsh but you just need to grow up, any other agent running a marketing campaign that say’s something you don’t like shouldn’t be a reason for you to say ‘this isn’t fair’ it should be where to decide to roll up your sleeves, dig in and show why you’re the better company to choose.

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        1. AgentV
          July 28, 2017 at 08:18

          ‘Hmmmm ….insults at this time on a Friday morning. Did I say it wasn’t fair? I said it was a great pity. Did I throw insults at your opinions?..no. You need to understand everyone has a right to an opinion…..whether you agree with it or not.

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          1. Bless You
            July 28, 2017 at 09:10

            Crispy did you by  chance vote brexit?? They seem to say ‘just get over it’ as well. The trouble is people who will be directly affected  by the lies will suffer.

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            1. AgentV
              July 28, 2017 at 09:28

              I had two properties for sale in the same road, one for a customer I knew very well, one for someone who had recently come to us.

              The new vendor asked me to put a notice up on our website next to the other property (number 36) saying that number 28 in the road (his house) was the same only cheaper…to help him sell it quicker.

              It was certainly cheaper….by £20,000….. but to me that represented the vastly different quality of offerings. Therefore I didn’t agree with the vendors assessment that it was the same. I also said to them that I wasn’t willing to put the advert up as it would upset my other vendor….someone whose whole family had been selling properties through our agency for many years. Even though I knew we were the main agent in town, and they probably wouldn’t have left us to go anywhere else, I didn’t want to offend or alienate my longstanding and loyal customers.

              My new vendor then said he would pay me more to do it…….and up front. As well as my own income, I had the shareholders in my business to think about.

              What should I have done?

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              1. Bless You
                July 28, 2017 at 09:33

                Told him to get lost. But a great example of the idiots we have to deal with on a daily basis….  i love customers lol

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              2. Property Paddy
                July 28, 2017 at 10:03

                Every client has to be treated equally, you cannot not do something in case it upsets another “long standing” client.

                 

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    3. snapdup
      July 28, 2017 at 11:11

      Average spend per branch is up 10% to £911 and the value to agents is lower because sales volumes are lower.  This will hit smaller agents the most.

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  2. Ric
    July 28, 2017 at 07:27

    Shame there is no other option, where we could all mutually come together as Agents and put our properties on the market on a portal which would return investment to the people who make it work and those people even have an option for an equal share and no products to fool weaker agents in to thinking you need daft advertisements to help sell correctly priced property.

    oh well… it is, what it is.

     

     

     

     

     

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    1. Bless You
      July 28, 2017 at 08:05

      until the public know about it, they cant use it. Also need to let ALL no sale no fee agents use it , also need to drop 1 portal rule ,. Also we as industry need to organise a 3 month strike on rightmove until they drop their fees or agents realise they don’t need rightmove to operate. Its like we are all hooked to a very bad drug that takes all your money and gives it back to a purple pimp….bless u all

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      1. Ric
        July 28, 2017 at 08:26

        3 Month strike…. I have championed invisible week for many years now….. problem….. we have shown how spineless and short sighted we are as an industry! (I exclude the current OTM members from this) but as for everyone else. Sorry, it is what it is.

        We have and we continue to allow the public to think it is RM which pulls in the enquiries. We even allow our hot buyers to call us, after the property goes live, adding to the problem that even buyers think the agent does nothing.

        Back to the 3 month strike or invisible week….. Do you fancy pressing “hide my stock first”? because all of a sudden you will know why “trust me I’m an Estate Agent” never fails to get a laugh during a valuation.

         

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        1. propertyplayer
          July 28, 2017 at 09:03

          Hardly putting the customer first there though is it.

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          1. Ric
            July 28, 2017 at 09:08

            oh please……. propertyplayer, I am a no sale no fee estate agent…. do you think I do this for the sheer fun of it.

            Hardly putting the client first… funny. I like you.

             

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          2. AgencyInsider
            July 28, 2017 at 09:08

            Could be argued that actually it is putting the customer first.

            If by their actions agents could cause a reduction in the marketing costs then the consumer might, at least in theory, benefit from the agents’ ability to lower their fees.

            OK, I did emphasise the ‘in theory’.

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            1. Bless You
              July 28, 2017 at 09:15

              I love a customer, dont get me wrong…but if i have no business i have no customers…chicken and egg … my little lambs.

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              1. Bless You
                July 28, 2017 at 09:19

                Timeline:

                2000 Rightmove created by corporates

                2010 Rightmove slowly won estate agents looking for anything to get competitive advantage.

                2012 Corporates sold their stakes in rightmove giving full control to the city and showed that they know nothing about business.

                2015 OntheMArket launched and took rightmoves side, making them even stronger

                2017 Purplebricks with their PAYANYWAY model allowed to use rightmove to bring down the industry it was supposed to support

                2025 no high street agents left , owners drive around in cars all day looking for scraps…a bit like madmax film..

                2030 the public realise that cheaper isnt better but by then all agents who remember what service was have retired to greece. I will have your sun bed ready with a beer.

                Bless you all .

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                1. AgentV
                  July 28, 2017 at 09:43

                  The only thing missing is the date the ‘do it yourself website’ became self aware and decided that Vendors and Buyers were the true enemy…..creating more work than needed with their constant time consuming phone calls and demands to speak to and meet with a human rather than a machine, ……and that it would be much better to just deal with bricks and mortar buildings.

                  We all know what happened next, and unable to make his escape to Greece, Bless You found himself as the only viable leader of the ‘Agents Vanguard’ resistance.

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                  1. Bless You
                    July 28, 2017 at 10:30

                    Quality name Agentv . I need to write another app first and then we will launch it..

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                2. wardy
                  July 28, 2017 at 14:16

                  Love it. That’s the first bit of positive news I’ve had. Greece here I come! For a while I’ve been thinking that i’ll end up spending the rest of my days in Skegness.

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  3. hodge
    July 28, 2017 at 15:11

    I would like to thank all agents who advertise on Rightmove . My shares have gone up in value yet again and this all contributes to my well earned pension.

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