A leading agent has issued an angry missive after receiving a massively increased bill from Rightmove.
He says it “resembles less an invoice for advertising and more a ransom note.”
Trevor Abrahmsohn, owner of prestigious London agency Glentree Estates – which has just one branch – writes: “They have asked for their fees to rise from £35,661 to around £40,000, an increase of roughly 15%.
“Yet inflation, meanwhile, is politely ambling along at about 3%. Apparently, it appears, that Rightmove inhabits an economic microclimate, all of its own.”
It’s rare for agents to disclose explicit details of their portal charges but Abrahmsohn doesn’t hold back.
He says: “Last year Rightmove generated, for Glentree, 806 telephone enquiries and 655 emails, a total of 1,461 leads and the cost this year for this will be in the region of £40,000.
“That means every telephone call costs us £49.63, every email £61.07, and every enquiry, of whatever description, £27.38.
“Zoopla … on the other hand, generated 554 calls and 653 emails, a total of 1,207 enquiries for us.
“This effectively means that the cost to Glentree is £21.66 per call, £18.38 per email and £9.94 per enquiry.
“So Rightmove delivers just 254 additional enquiries across an entire year, around 21% more leads than Zoopla, yet it charges three times the price.
“Those additional enquiries therefore cost approximately £110 each.
“If this were presented on Dragons’ Den, Peter Jones would probably ask whether there had been a typing error.”
He admits that agents operating outside of London may have lower, or at least different, charges.
But he says that his typical client – an affluent purchaser of prime property – will make contact with his agency through many different routes, making Rightmove less useful than it might be to agents elsewhere.
And Abrahmsohn concludes that Rightmove may face the same fate as Blockbuster, Yellow Pages and Kodak – outdated by new technology.
In Rightmove’s case it may be voice-activated Artificial Intelligence, and Abrahmsohn concludes: “Soon buyers won’t browse endless portals. They’ll simply ask…”
A Rightmove spokesperson told Estate Agent Today: “Our focus is on innovating and investing in our platform to deliver strong value to agents, and they can choose the package and products that best fit their business.
“We give agents full exposure to a UK-wide and highly engaged home-moving audience through the Rightmove site and mobile apps.
“Consumers can access an expanding range of tools, data and AI features which make them better informed and qualified as leads for agents, whether as buyers, sellers or renters.
“We provide a specialist set of products, tools and data insights to agents, equipping them to understand market dynamics, win more property listings, attract buyer and renter interest and secure property transactions.
“We also provide official qualification and training programmes for their teams.”
