String of analyst reports on Rightmove express concerns on falling agency members

| Rosalind Renshaw

A string of recent City reports on Rightmove are commenting on agency numbers after the portal reported results for the first half of this year.

While Rightmove said there had been a 10% rise in both profits and revenues, it also said that there had been a 3% fall in agency membership in the six months to June.

In its report, Barclays says: “We now expect the number of UK agents to be down 7% in 2019 – a big number.”

It predicts a further 2% decline next year.

It says that online/hybrid agents are no longer growing and that bricks and mortar “is clearly declining”.

Barclays says that Rightmove has been “the bastion of reliability in the last decade” but that “pressures are building”.

The bank’s analysts do, however, say that ARPA – the amount that advertisers pay to list their properties – is on track.

Barclays continues to give Rightmove shares an “underweight” rating, and gives the share price a potential 20% downside.

In its report, Peel Hunt says that the 3% loss of agency numbers in the first half of the year was a “steeper fall than we had forecast”.

A third report, from Credit Suisse, says there is an implied reduction of 1,100 agency branches this year, which it says is “materially worse than consensus expected”.

Its figures are that 560 branches left Rightmove in the first half of this year, with another 566 to go in the second half. It is forecasting a further 1.5% decline next year.

Investec, which is recommending that investors hold their Rightmove stock, says that while the loss of some 500 agents in the first six months is being partly offset offset by new homes growth, “it is a drag on revenue growth”.

A fifth report, from J.P. Morgan, says in its headline comment that “decline in agents is worse than expected”.

The report says: “We have flagged declining agency numbers before but the magnitude of declines is worrying.”

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20 Comments

  1. GPL
    August 8, 2019 at 07:00

     
    Rightmove?
     
    ARPA? …the nail that RM kept driving into Agents however it forgot it was also driving an identical nail into itself with its ruthless pursuit of ARPA.
     
    Also, RM’s dismissive attitude, poor service, clunky/failing website, ignorance of Agents concerns over its increasingly poor value for money, forcing products upon Agents…..
     
    Just some of the reasons that Rightmove became Wrongmove!
     
    Rightmove set fire to its relationship with Agents years ago, the early simmering flames are now burning fiercly – no surprise from Agents perspective. 
     
     

    Report
  2. iainwhite87
    August 8, 2019 at 07:19

    Rightmove have to achieve 3 things

    bring in new tech to in effect disrupt their own model , if they don’t they will be redundant.

    mend their relationship with agents by allowing downgrades in package levels as easily as they sign up upgrades.

    Add empathy and high service agenda to their sales and account management set up.

    If they don’t there numbers are wrong 1.5% loss of agents next year will be nearer 5% and possibly an end unstoppable tide of leavers to new disruptive models and tech of which several stand out as no brained already.

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    1. DASH94
      August 8, 2019 at 08:18

      I don’t know that the relationship could be mended now.   3 or 4 years ago, maybe, but I can’t think of anything that they could do to make me consider that we have a good business relationship.

      Report
      1. J1
        August 8, 2019 at 09:47

        They are a truly horrid organisation with a bully-boy attitude.  Such a shame.  Shame on them.

        Report
  3. Property Poke In The Eye
    August 8, 2019 at 07:33

    We came away from RM July 2017.

     

     

    That 3% fall in agency numbers is much higher, all will come out soon.

    We have seen 13 agents close shop in the last 12 months in a 1 mile radius of our office.  2 new agents have opened up but are not on RM.

    I also believe the way RM are reporting membership numbers COULD be misleading in my OPINION.

    As they are now introducing separate membership for sales, lettings, commercial and new homes.  So where you could advertise a commercial and new home under your residential membership this will not be allowed in the coming months.  This alone will massage the membership figures.  ZOOPLA are have also adopted the same practice.

    RM have priced itself out of the market and p***** o** alot of agents on the way.  Any company which does that always fails at the end.

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  4. JonnyBanana43
    August 8, 2019 at 07:40

    Are you all On The Market reps?!?!

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  5. debbiedoesalot
    August 8, 2019 at 09:06

    Good, long time coming. We’re putting some of our eggs in the OTM basket and seriously considering dumping Rightmove. The fees could be better spent on a further part time member of staff (well almost full time on the money we are paying RM). 2 weeks ago I emailed RM to ask what the notice period is, they have yet to respond ….

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    1. HIT MAN
      August 8, 2019 at 20:42

      Many agents have decided to leave by 31st October RMEXIT was set and loads have already resigned to leave at end of September.  RIP RM. RMEXIT

      Report
  6. J1
    August 8, 2019 at 09:33

    OTM will raise their fees to alarming levels in time…….. of that there is no doubt.

    RM will still be dominant in 5 years time………. of that there is no doubt.

    However, why do we need portals at all?   If the market leader in each town left RM and relied only on their marketing what would happen?  They would soon not be the market leader……right?

    So we do need to be on a national portal to reach regional and national buyers; and to give comfort to vendors that their agent is displaying their home in the most visible location.  Rightmove does that better than the others I am afraid.

    Rightmove is hated and is out of date, out of touch and provides no customer service or value for money but OTM is no better really, its just cheaper.

    RM needs to get its act in order and provide better value for its member agents not its shareholders.

    Facebook might be the answer, but its not OTM.

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  7. NotAdoctor32
    August 8, 2019 at 09:48

    You either need a portal or you don’t.  I personally believe a very good agent can get by without but if you do feel you need one then why be on the one that not many buyers know about, and also clearly don’t care about their members?  Surely it is Rightmove or nobody?

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  8. B Mills
    August 8, 2019 at 10:10

    I am about to meet our 9th new Rightmove Account Manager in 8 years (not including the temporary office based ones in between). We did not receive our annual increase in March/April this year so it will interesting to see if she will bring this up. We will consider reducing products but if that doesn’t make much of a saving due to the con of the discounted core membership we are pretty much ready to jump ship and stick with OTM and Zoopla. Hope many others follow as have threatened.

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    1. wardy
      August 8, 2019 at 11:37

      Good luck, all I can say is that after removing all products (and we had them all) and our letting branch entirely, we have seen zero difference in performance.

      Working out the cost per lead after taking out duplicate calls and emails is eye watering.

       

      Report
      1. Agent Derbyshire
        August 8, 2019 at 14:42

        Yes, ditch the extras….they make absolutely no difference to our business!

        Report
  9. Property Pundit
    August 8, 2019 at 10:20

    Assume these analysts don’t read PIE. If they did they might begin to understand just how vulnerable RM really is. The trickle of leavers, giving confidence to others to follow suit, will very quickly lead to a flood. End of RM, they only have themselves to blame.

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    1. NotAdoctor32
      August 8, 2019 at 14:31

      Maybe they do but there are only about 30 regular posters that are vocal against RM so less than 0.2% of the agents nationally.  Hopefully it snowballs though. It does seem to be picking up pace but there are still many new agents setting up and a lot of them will be straight on to RM.

      Report
      1. Property Pundit
        August 8, 2019 at 15:20

        Nearly 1800 views with 15 comments so far. Lots of lurkers who don’t want to get involved, too busy to post or just can’t be ar$ed, bet they feel the same!

        Report
  10. Woodhen
    August 8, 2019 at 12:16

    Remember that company called Yellow Pages who split up your area, looked for enhancements, web site links etc etc all to make more fees…… they had the same attitude towards their Clients…..where are they now? We have as many enquiries coming through our own web site…..many house hunters simply search for the Agents in your area…..just make sure you come up high in the rankings on the first page

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    1. Property Pundit
      August 8, 2019 at 15:24

      ‘just make sure you come up high in the rankings on the first page‘ 
      Now if only there was an easy way to achieve that. 

      Report
  11. HIT MAN
    August 8, 2019 at 20:44

    I’ve done it! notice in and RMEXIT bye bye RM RIP. I’m a dragon and I’m out!
     
    Many agents are leaving Rightmove in mass on the 31st October, Zoopla offering a discount if you stop listing on Rightmove, my noticed  is In “RMEXIT “

    Report
    1. Property Poke In The Eye
      August 9, 2019 at 08:41

      The leave movement has started.

      Report
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