Rightmove looks unstoppable as it reports new growth

Re-growth in agency numbers has helped push Rightmove advertiser numbers to 17,600, up 5% from the low point of February this year.

Estate agents and letting agents membership rose to 14,100 by the end of October, up 8% from the start of the year.

Agents are also spending more on Rightmove’s Choice products.

The portal, in its interim management statement issued this morning, also reports: “Changes to pricing are progressing according to plan.”

Rightmove told the stock market of healthy growth in revenue and record traffic levels: August was its busiest month ever, with nearly 600 million page impressions, up over 40% on August 2008. Inquiries for advertisers are also being generated at much higher levels – up over 60% in the third quarter.

Rightmove also reports growth in the number of new developments being advertised on its site, saying it now has all the largest mainstream new home developers as advertisers.

The business is on target to achieve £5m of savings this year, the report says. These savings were announced last year, when there were redundancies as Rightmove scaled back hard on its sales operation to agents.

Rightmove says it is confident of meeting market expectations for the rest of this year and expects further progress in 2010.

It did not refer to any further rises in subscriptions for its members in this morning’s statement, although these are widely expected by the industry.