Rightmove is said to have been held up to be the benchmark property portal at this month’s international property portal conference in Barcelona.

It was described as “running like a machine, with tight cost control and an efficient operation”.

According to a briefing note by brokers Ian Whittaker and Lisa Hau of Liberum Capital, Rightmove “was held up on several occasions as the benchmark model for the portal industry with margins that other players aim to match”.

Described as a “vertical” offering in the briefing note – because Rightmove focuses only on one product – it says that “the overriding view was that verticals provided deeper content and should be the winners. It was felt too difficult to win across several categories”.

The note goes on: “Speakers confirmed our view that sellers would be unhappy with estate agents who looked to save money by not advertising their property on a portal website – which gives greater bargaining power to the likes of Rightmove.”

Continuing under the headline “Risks to business model overstated”, the note says: “The speakers at the conference felt that there were unlikely to be significant structural risks to Rightmove from rivals such as Zoopla or new models such as Agents Mutual, although it was pointed out that Zoopla had been successful in building a strong second place in the UK market.

“A key issue is marketing costs, which are significant and make it harder for many sites to become profitable.”

The bullish note recommends buying and says that Rightmove shares, currently 2,066p, should hit a target of 2,510p.