Rightmove is one of the strongest property portals in the world, a City analyst has said.

Its latest report also says that there are many new avenues for property portals to make more money, citing the Australian portal REA’s “highly successful” direct monetisation of vendors.

In the UK, it says there is “significant scope for portals to expand their share of estate agent wallet”.

Exane BNP Paribas specifically believes that Rightmove can make more money out of agents.

Exane said that in recent weeks it has been looking at the “global property portal space”.

It has found that Rightmove’s market position and business model is predominant. It says that both the latest Hitwise and Comscore data suggest Rightmove is increasing its share of traffic.

More controversially, Exane also said it views Rightmove’s business to business functionality as best in class, saying its “pricing dynamics are favourable vs peers”.

Its other findings are interesting, showing just how different property markets are across the world.

In the USA, where it is common for there to be two agents involved in each transaction – a listing agent and a selling agent – Exane says this has hindered portal growth.

In France, high fees have encouraged property market distuptors.

“In Australia, REA’s direct monetization of vendors has proved highly successful.

“We see the UK’s model (estate agent funded through a relatively low vendor-financed fee) with property portals the main property discovery tool for house hunters, as among the the strongest.”

Exane has raised its target price for Rightmove shares from £33 to £36.

This, it says, reflects “our bullish view of Rightmove’s share of agents’ wallets longer term”.

In a separate note to investors, Exane has commented on last week’s half-year results announced by Zoopla.

It said that Zoopla had now lost over 4,000 estate agency branches to OnTheMarket which, it said, is “here to stay”.

Exane also said that Zoopla’s inventory “remains weakened despite positive tone from management”.

It said: “Management argued that inventory is ‘growing’, up to 866k (from 803k in Feb although we understand this includes non UK agency stock).

“Our tracking of UK agent only inventory suggests that (although up c5% from trough) Zoopla inventory remains weak, over 25% below the pre-AM launch level (Nov-14), and materially below Rightmove.

“This inventory gap, if sustained, brings the risk of further traffic and enquiries market share loss to Rightmove, in our view.”

However, Exane’s view of Zoopla is not widely shared.

Berenberg Bank has reaffirmed its buy rating of Zoopla shares, as has Nomura, while Numis Securities has raised its price target on the shares and given it an add rating.

Exane’s new report is here