Rightmove has denied reports that it is planning to hike subscription rates this year but has admitted that it is considering levying new charges in 2010.
A spokesman said this morning that what Rightmove would decide to charge in the New Year was an on-going "conversation". However, there would be no changes between now and the end of 2009.
Speculation grew after Rightmove raised its rates for new lettings-only joiners on September 1. This went up from £195 per branch per month to £265. The rise was flagged up in advance, with a number of firms rushing to beat the deadline.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove’s commercial director, said: “As part of a pricing review we increased our new joiner rates for lettings-only branches earlier this month. We saw a strong rise in lettings-only membership prior to the new joiner rate increase, as potential customers saw the strong value benefit of securing their membership with us.
“The lettings traffic on Rightmove is now bigger than any other UK property website apart from Rightmove itself, and we have seen a 109% increase in rental searches on our site over the last 12 months.”
He added: “Rightmove has not reviewed pricing since 2007, during which time we have invested heavily in increasing our level of service to members and will continue to do so.
“There will be no increases in 2009 beyond the new joiner rate. However, as all businesses do, we review them. Any decisions will be communicated to our customers in a timely manner.
“Our aim for the balance of 2009 and onwards is to continue to deliver tremendous value for money to our customers.”
Rightmove considers new charges for next year
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Comments
Well said Chris Mervyn. We're still trying to persuade agents to ditch a local press that is losing circulation at an alarming rate (while increasing rates), that is losing advertising support on a continual basis and that offers pathetically short shelf-life. There is an alternative and we're here to provide it.
They recon they are doing well sio they should be offering discounts to their loyal customers. DONT BITE OFF THE HAND THAT FEEDS......there are other good portals out there
'Feed the hand that bites' is right. If you take away the goods the shops can't keep trading. The only problem with estate agency is that too many think there isn't any other choice.
We should join together and become a stronger force. There should be an estate agent owned website. We all pay into the NAEA (or the majority do), so why not pay a little bit more and have a 'national estate agents website'. The same goes for the local press. Get rid of them. They've bled us dry with fabricated readership figures for too long. Create a regional estate agents publication, owned by the advertisers with the backup of the website. No more worrying about the price increases - unless we vote for them. Additional advertisers payments (solicitors etc) would go into the development of the site and ongoing advances.
This could also stop the problem of these private sale 'agents' appearing next to our properties. Lets safeguard our industry.
The only thing stopping us is ourselves.
fthtb asks how can we start working together? I know, we could all use Property Live the 'free' site promoted by NAEA/ARLA. The only difficulty with this plan is that, despite years of watching everyone else do, Property Live is sh*t. You would think they could take the best features of the other property portals and put together a fantastic offering both for us members and the public. Faced with that sort of competition no wonder Rightmove are considering putting their prices up!
Why are Rightmove putting their charges up to us at all.We provide the content that allows them to charge us in the first place.Without our support and content Rightmove don't have a product.How can we start working together to keep the value of our own content and then build our own portal to protect us in the future?