Revenues and profits both bounced up at Rightmove, the site said this morning in reporting its half-year results for 2012.
Income was up 23% to £57.9m and profits shot up 28% to £42.6m. The profit margin jumped to an extraordinary 73.5%, up from 71.1% in the first half of last year.
The huge hikes were not because of a growth in the number of agents and developers listing on the site. Numbers of advertisers have been virtually unchanged this year, rising just 0.1% since the end of last year to stand at 18,299 and 1% lower than the first half of last year.
However, average revenue per advertiser was up 20% to £518 per month. In the first six months of last year, the average spend per advertisier was £430.
Rightmove said customers had increased their spend 'more sharply than usual at the start of the year', with higher prices being charged and 80% now buying one or more additional advertising products.
Ed Williams, managing director, said: "Britain continues to move at Rightmove. Not only is Rightmove where home movers look for their next home but we are the definitive source of information on what is happening in the UK property market.
"Our reputation with agents and other property professionals, whether through our data services business or as the source of the best view of the market for landlords and vendors, goes from strength to strength."
The site also reported that traffic to Rightmove is up 20% on a year ago.
However, in this morning's results, Rightmove did warn that it could be at risk if the state of the housing market leads to a reduction in the number of agents advertising on its site, and said there were 'uncertainties' surrounding the housing market.
But it also pointed out that Rightmove had managed to grow its revenue in challenging market conditions.
Also this morning, Nationwide reported a 0.6% monthly fall in house prices, with the average price now standing at £165,738, a 1.5% annual drop.
Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said house prices had now fallen for the fourth time in five months.
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Comments
Honestly try this site, I am so happy to finally pay the actual cost that is necessary instead of being ripped off!!!!
www.propertypropertyproperty.co.uk
Ok educate me how does the EA act 1979 and PMA1991 prevent Rightmove taking private listings. As i see it they not be acting as estate agent( if contact is made direct to the vendor). I may be wrong.....Im sure you will tell me
"I hope you plan to consult the vendors who instucted you before removing any listings from rightmove, you are supposed to acting in their best interests." RAA and Sundays child what is your response to this?
Happy Chappy on 2012-08-01 19:01:01 ;
"If agents stop listing on Rightmove en masse then i guess Rightmove will allow vendors to list direct."
You really don't know the background to what you're talking about, do you? If I can borrow this quote from RAA;
"Read and understand the Estate Agent Act 1979 before making stupid comments. When you have done that, read and understand the PMA 1991. Then read up all you can on why Tesco & Spicerhaart couldn't get their heads around 'private listings 'on mass'. "
Come back when you've read and understood the two links that RAA provided for you......
The majority of back lash comes from poor customer service and arrogant reps which leaves a very bitter after taste. We are due our visit next week the first one in 2 years!!and I already know exactly why he’s coming and what the outcome will be. They try to avoid the visits noe and just bang out E Contracts for electronic signature.
@anon on 2012-08-02 14:06:16
Your last paragraph is so very very true. I started banging on about it years ago - free advertisng on every bit of our our own advertisng, stickers and details - and paying them!. Also telling clients about how marvellous it was so they started to skip our own ads. to look at RM which shows all comptitors too.
Unfortunately EA's woke up (I think) to the downside of advertising their larger competitors a bit late. What to do now. I think it is probably too late for agents themselves to do much?.
B*stards
At just under a £1000 per month for one office (with lots of products before you all start on me) it’s getting expensive. Any future fee increases will simply be subsidised by removal of the products that I buy.
I don’t see any value in paying any more, so I won’t.
The end user experience of RM is good but I suspect that the majority of back lash comes from poor customer service and arrogant reps which leaves a very bitter after taste.
We are due our visit next week and I already know exactly why he’s coming and what the outcome will be.
One final thing. Those of you who have been telling the public for years that you're on RM, putting stickers in the window, logos on details, only have yourself to blame. You built this monster and at the same lined the pockets of your corporate competitors. The short sightedness of agents all those years ago grew this industry into an online market place with one monopoly advertiser.
If you are one of the agents in the office, typing away about RM's fee's, look up and see if you have their sticker in the window. If you do, please remove it then give yourself a slap.
There is one of the idiots.. posting now
RAA
Are you forgetting RM is a business? - They are there to make as much money as possible not to make sure agents make as much money as possible.
Yes before you spout it RM is there to help us make money and i think you find they do - Also i am sure your next point is "er well wont be any agents left as going out of business" - if thats the case the agent rally should not be trading in the first place.
Also calling somebody else an arrogant idiot! - seriously!?
I have no idea who the guy is but if he is anything like me he is running a sucessful agency and sees the payment to RM as just a standard cost in business
If its that much of an issue raise YOUR fees look at "outside the box's" suggestion.
You are moaning about 6k a year probably not even 2 extra house sales at 1.5%
Why do all the agent use RM - simple its the best!
lots of hits, great presentation, user friendly and a great back office system for agents.
So as somebody else said "Put up or shut up"
RM is here to stay and long may it!
@rightmove abuses agents, I hope you plan to consult the vendors who instucted you before removing any listings from rightmove, you are supposed to acting in their best interests.
As long as our industry is festooned with ignorant, arrogant, short sighted idiots who spout such stupidity as ‘pay up or shut up’ and similar dimwitted comments, we will all continue to suffer the unilateral fleecing subjected to each and every one of us by those very clever internet people, Rightmove.
If (as those in the business long enough) you recall, we all promoted Rightmove with lovely stickers in our windows, putting their logo on our newspaper advertising, property details, etc. Etc.
While our idustry still exists, we still have this power. If we all collectively promoted a portal in this way (again) it would grow. This does not mean ‘stop using’ Rightmove, it means stop promoting them, realising they are fleecing you with your own stock.
We all know, remove your stock and Rightmove care not one jot. But if everyone removed their stock in one go they would listen, look, maybe crumble, maybe lower their margins, who knows.
Bottom line.
As long as the arrogant idiots exist in our ranks, Rightmove have nothing to worry about.
Every time you pay Rightmove, remember the idiot who posted here ‘pay up or shut up’, it is he and his cohorts that perpetuate your receiving these huge bills.
Support the newspapers too much and you will end up with a new animal like the Daily Mail now running Zoopla, part owned again by Corporates.
Next someone will suggest Property live!
"The day another business is prepared to cough up 10m a year for advertising to get their name in front of the UK public - and charge agents 30% of RightMove fees - so they have a turnover of 17m and 5m profit after (say) 2m costs - is the day that agents might move en-masse. "
But that's my point - these sites already exist and at a fraction of the cost. I agree that we do all need to get behind them though......
I've been having a look at newspaper sites across the country and it looks like many have got their act together recently, many listing thousands of properties. Maybe this is the alternative waiting to happen?
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/homes/
Why do people keep gibbering about private sales? Most people use an agent because they want a buffer between them and buyers. It's that simple and is the reason why, despite being widely reviled, agents still exist.
Now, Rightmove made 42m profit from 55m turnover.
Which suggests that, in rough numbers, maybe 10m is used to advertise and 3m is overheads (its a rack of servers).
The day another business is prepared to cough up 10m a year for advertising to get their name in front of the UK public - and charge agents 30% of RightMove fees - so they have a turnover of 17m and 5m profit after (say) 2m costs - is the day that agents might move en-masse.
Until that day comes, please adopt the position and pay up.
Or form local co-operatives and agree to use another portal.
Hey chump chop try using quotes correctly
It is true, there is no way that rightmove would ever shift their model to private sales because they would become worthless overnight.
They are probably raising prices now in order to compensate for the fact that there will only be about 50% of the amount of estate agents there are now in a couple of years.
Companies on the stock exchange have shareholders to report to. Shareholders don't care if the service the company provides is fair, they care about getting an ever increasing return on their investments.
You really just use the phrase "Fat Cats!" oh dear liberal looney!
Chumoie Chappy, you idiot.
Read and undrtand the Estate Agent 1979 before making stupid comments.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/38
When you have done that, read and understand the PMA 1991
http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file25449.pdf
Then read up all you can on why Tesco & Spicerhaart couldn't get their heads around 'private listings 'on mass'.
When you fully understand the reasons why RM cannot go 'direct to public' without adding so much infrastructure and cost to their business at a local level on a National basis it wouldn't be worthwhile, comment again. Do you know anything about the property business?
If agents stopped listing on RM, it is a fact, RM would have no business, it would be instant and massive.
And a lot of fat cats would lose a lot of money. Every penny RM has taken is ESTATE AGENTS COMMISSION, they only have EA's as customers.
Hey chump chop try using quotes correctly
Cor Slappy that’s new “agents to leave en masse”, you really are a chump!
Dave Arnold who thinks Rightmove is "a joke". I am afraid the joke is on you Mr Arnold. Thanks to fees from people like yourself RM is now worth £1.7 billion (stock up 10% today alone). What is your crummie '2 flea bitten estate agencies in nowheresville' worth? square root of F all I would imagine. The only people laughing are RM shareholders.
Remember the times when local press advertising was much more expensive (in real terms) than it is now? In many cases it didn't matter because it was charged out. The rightmove moans will not go away until agents revert to charging for advertising be it newspapers and/or portals. Let the vendors pay for it themselves. Of course, we know not all will with the 'inclusive' agents using it against the 'exclusive' ones.
RAA.....If agents stop listing on Rightmove en masse then i guess Rightmove will allow vendors to list direct.
Now do vendors value RM higher than an EA???.
Look at outside of the boxes suggestion it is the only one that makes sense.
Enough already''' quite right... enough already from you...
You go away while people with sense and Estae Agency Business discuss the issue of RM raping the industry whilst we are in the midst of downturn, 50% less volume than 4 years ago, and a problem not shared by the industry's biggest partner.
We are all being shafted. The sums involved are huge. And every penny of it is estate agency commission.
It still remains the same.
If agents stopped listing on RM, RM is gone. I asked a vendor today who is a fan of RM for his searches, "if all property were listed elsewhere, would you look at that elsewhere or doggedly keep looking at RM"?
Answer... he would look elsewhere.
So would everybody else.
RM are internet people, not property people.
Worth repeating?
Agents - start looking at your business model. Think about spending that £500+ pcm on better welcoming high profile premises - look after your core local market - people like dealing face to face - all buyers visit the area prior to purchase wherever they obtain initial info., if they can see you they will talk to you as will potential sellers?
(They also read local newspapers of whom many have websites)
If not, and RM suits you, pay them whatever they ask for!
Who are rightmove? is it a newspaper?
It's getting boring now, either leave RM or suffer in silence!!
In the story below Your Move's turnover in the estate agency division increased by 33% to £86.4m, generating £6.5m profits, up from £0.6m on the same period last year.
and in this story:
Rightmoves income was up 23% to £57.9m and profits shot up 28% to £42.6m. The profit margin jumped to an extraordinary 73.5%, up from 71.1% in the first half of last year.
Now, I am not a fan of either of these firms, but one is an estate agent and the other is an internet company making money from estate agents.
Spot the difference anyone?
And if every Estate Agent put their property to 'INVISIBLE' on RM for a month, perhaps they would stop taking the piss.
Gloating about how much you are 'skinning' your customers for cannot be good business.
I agree OTB that the paper builds presence as it always has done.
Not really a village - SE London suburbia. The local paper here is a freebie and has a significant property section despite a number of "shabby old agents" shying away from it.
Whilst I agree the combined hits for portals is huge the paper's website is local whereas the portals have national coverage. We are, are we not, local businesses? They have a readership of over 300,000 online: local people reading local news - the exact same scenario that existed for the paper when we first advertised with them in the 80's which is why we are sticking with them.
We feed properties to the papers site and the app direct from our software (DezRez) for free and they are full and up to date - just like RM, Zoopla etc
I agree agency is changing but people still move locally as they always have done and people still want to know what's happening locally?
As for RM - we will see won't we?
Dear Grady, Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, aren't they? To us it seems that ROI is not worth the ever rising costs of Rightmove in such a difficult market place with the economic climate they way it is. Rather than being a "penny pinching miser" we would like to say that, in our opinion, costs from Rightmove far out-weigh the benefits, that is all.
Indy,
Glad you support local paper so do i, i think it does build your local awarness and helps with valuations.
All i am saying is the paper really does not work for selling property it just increases your presence the same as boards do.
unless you are based in a village which you very well maybe i think most people do a search on RM for property to buy so my personal opinion is it is a better sales tool and is needed.
1.5 Million hits sounds good but the exposure i get from potals is around 50 million hits per month and RM plays a big part in that - Just goes to show the vast difference potals make and i am guessing the local paper might hit 30,000 per week
Are you exposing the properties to the largest possible market and giving yourself the best chance to sell the property at a good price and justify your fee? - This in turn helps justify the £500 pm to RM
Agency is changing we need to as well otherwise we will be that "Shabby old agent that still does b/w pictures in the local paper when everybody else is colour"
Outside the Box -
"Now we agree local papers are expensive and outdated and RM is sadly here to stay"
There is another point of view of course....
The local paper does something that RM doesn't. It genuinely promotes your brand, something that RM doesn't do - . Yes, you can buy the RM add ons and push your brand to the top of the pile but when you strip it bare you are just listing (not advertising) properties on RM.
We still advertise in our local paper out of choice as it does still deliver response and it does mean that our brand is out there, in front of LOCAL people.
As part of our deal we get free listings on the local paper's website (1.5 million hits last month!) and have just bought into their new app, something they are heavily promoting. For a nominal monthly fee we are getting everything that RM offers but at a fraction of the cost. And so far so good - we are getting response and the paper are committed to promoting both the Property part of their site and the app.
We are not ready to pull away from RM just yet but as things stand unless the market improves I'm not sure we can justify the cost of RM in the future.
Qualified professional estate agents? Say what? You sound the exact opposite.
A vendor would be mad not to insist on a Rightmove listing. It is where the vast majority of buyers look for a property. Any agent without an RM prescence is a cheapskate, penny pinching, miser who I don't want involved in my sale. Thank yoiu very much.
We spent years and thousands of pounds of our own money, like almost all agents, too scared to leave RM. Some vendors have decided to go to another agent, but as another poster said, if people want to find you, they will. Great marketing Rightmove - the public believe themselves better as placed to determine the market place. Homeowners now believe that they know more than qualified, professional estate agents, with 30 years extensive local knowledge! However, how many homeowners have we found when dictating their property HAS to be on Rightmove, that would happily spend £900 pcm of their own personal money for the privilige of, little or no chance of return because they look at the overpricing of over zealous agents simply aiming to secure listings just to sell associated services?? Exactly - none! Flexible, focused and realistic vendors are the only ones with any hope of moving within this economy. Who in therir right mind would continue throwing money at something which is not going to work in this current climate. Such a shame RM have got totally inside the general publics' head to the extent others are too scared to follow the few agents like us who will vote with their feet. Is it any wonder RM's profits are up when they tell loyal customers "Rates are going up over 20%, you have no choice, take it or leave it. Oh and by the way, if you spend more, you will get better value!" Even more arrogant than Tescos - well, we have had enough. Blow the consequences, someone has to stand up and be counted!
Here we go again!
Rightmove charging high fees and agents complaining!
Okay let me open your eyes (sorry if this is patronising)
How much is a page in the local paper? - how much do you get from the local paper?
Now we agree local papers are expensive and outdated and RM is sadly here to stay this is how to make it work for you!
1. If £500 pcm is too much should you be trading?
2. If you can afford it and just sticks in your claw why not pass the cost on AND protect your stock in the process.
Charge your vendor a £50 listing fee, you can refund this on completion to the vendor. This will help cover RM high costs. Also will protect your stock from other agents touting.
10 x new instructions at £50 = £500 pcm easy!
Oh i am a sucessful agent working in a VERY competative market with a restricted advertising budget!
* sorry if a bit blunt but second typing as i did not add 10 + 4!
Well done Rightmove, many congratulations, quality business.
Don't blame RM for being successful! They invested a lot of money intitally to get it off the ground, so you can't now say they are the guilty party.
If you don't want to use RM then withdraw, it's really that simple!
I do think their fees are exhorbitant but hey! they know there are plenty of sheep that can be coralled into the pen.
Willie John McBride used to say "Gert your retaliation in first" and RM have taken this to a whole new level every single year since they started trading.
Note the 4th last paragraph above unless I totally misunderstand this is RM saying that
1. The market is fragile
2. May well weaken
3. They want to maintain or even increase profits
and so if the first two do come to pass then you can all look forward to yet another fee increase from RM.
I am long in the tooth and seen most things having been involved in mortgages and then lettings for over 40 years but what RM has achieved is almost unbelievable.
Just one parasite sucking the life out of another.
Or more likely EA's whinging about nothing. £500pcm is chicken feed.
@Semi-Detached on 2012-08-01 09:50:14
Methinks - You know very little, if anything, about estate agency or lettings & management.
Semi-Detached; a well-written and concise argument.
Methinks The Commentator has somehow missed the glaringly obvious point being made here by rightmoverep - which is that Rightmove have just as much right to screw the customer with higher fees as agents. What's source for the goose, etc. Besides which, I can't help thinking that it ill behoves estate agents, of all people, to whinge so much about middlemen making loadsamoney out of business transactions in which they personally make little or no investment...
"The huge hikes were not because of a growth in the number of agents and developers listing on the site. Numbers of advertisers have been virtually unchanged this year, rising just 0.1% since the end of last year to stand at 18,299 and 1% lower than the first half of last year.
However, average revenue per advertiser was up 20% to £518 per month. In the first six months of last year, the average spend per advertisier was £430."
Is this an advertorial??? It's a pity EAT only reports one side of this story and fails to mention the ultimatum Rightmove reps put to all their clients at the start of the year: buy in to a whole lot more quite frankly ineffectual advertising on their website, namely banners and feature properties for a significant hike on current price or pay not quite as much but still significantly more than last year's prices to get the basic package with brand logos and every other minimum requirement stripped out. It's about time the agents clubbed together to take out company's like these.
Rightmove are a joke, they increase their charges year on year without any reasoning & justification.
They do not offer any customer service & all the reps ever do is ring up to try and sell you something.
Fair play to being successful, chapeau but dont bite the hand that feeds you!
I have advertised sales & rentals with them for 7 years now & it galls me to pay their ever increasing fees, but who else can match them??
Come on surely somebody can take them on?
I HATE RIGHTMOVE WITH A PASSION
RGDS MR ANGRY AGENT
Average 500 pm say average 50 properties per agent 10 pm per property. Thats not excessive. Ask the piblic.
ABSOLUTE MONOPOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hardly surprising when you look at our recent exorbitant hike in fees. And extremely galling when you look at the downwards pressures we experience on rent returns…
No great surprise really if you think about it...
They are charging a bit more for their basic services and innovating with new services that we are all signing up for and paying them megabucks...
Because we are all toughing it out and trying to beat our own local competition.
Actually, if they hadn't increased their profits in this way we'd all be a bit surprised.
The problem we all have is that they have market dominance in terms of users (I mean buyers/ tenants here) so we have very little choice in the matter.
Watch as everyone does their own microsites and blows their own SEO to hell and Rightmove ends up automatically as number one on Google for every area...
This is a big problem.
"Big Brother" database. "A new database covering every single home in the UK has been launched by credit agency Experian in conjunction with property portal Rightmove".
Another move by RM to totally control property sales/lettings in the UK?
Agents - start looking at your business model. Think about spending that £500+ pcm on better welcoming high profile premises - look after your core local market - people like dealing face to face - all buyers visit the area prior to purchase wherever they obtain initial info., if they can see you they will talk to you as will potential sellers?
If not, and RM suits you, pay them whatever they ask for!
hmmmm "numbers of advertisers have been virtually unchanged this year" yet they're making 28% more profit....
the joys of running a virtual monopoly!
What's next, a body to control rightmove just like the phone companies?? Let's hope so as there's nothing we can do about it, really!
WOW!... I want to work at Rightmove!
Errrr...@RightmoveRep - Yes of course Rightmove fees up is bad, it is a COST to our businesses! Agent fees up is good, because that is INCOME to our business! If you can't understand that simple equation then I beg the question what kind of Muppets are Rightmove employing as sales reps?!! *Tut*.
Give some back to your loyal agents RIGHTMOVE, charge everyone the same instead of sweethearting certain chains and companies. A chalenge, ask your local rep how much others pay, or another agent what they pay the rep will give you NO information, but it is clear from other agents some pay MUCH more than others.