The recession finally seems to have caught up with Rightmove which today reported revenue, profits and number of advertisers all down for the first six months of this year.
Revenue was down 11% to £33.6m, reflecting the fall in properties on the market, but underlying operating profits came down just 4% to £19.9m.
More tellingly, the total number of advertisers dropped 13% to 16,874. For the same period last year, there were 19,301 advertisers listing their properties on the site.
However, the real crash in advertisers was in the second half of last year and the figure for the first half of this year crept 1% higher than the tally at December 31, 2008. In fact, the number of estate agents using the site has risen marginally as 2009 has gone by and Rightmove believes that numbers in the market have now stabilised.
Rightmove’s iron fist on cost controls also shows in the latest results: operating costs were slashed by 19% in the first half of this year, down from £17m to £13.7m.
Advertisers will also note that they were being charged more – average spend per advertiser went up 1%. The average advertiser is now spending £305 per month, against last year’s £301.
Traffic to the site crept up slightly, by 3%, to reach 3.2bn page impressions, against last year’s 3.1bn. Market share of page impressions, measured against Rightmove’s nearest competitors, rose from 78% to 80%.
Ed Williams, group managing director, said: “Rightmove has proven its worth in tough times. Customer loyalty, coupled with cost management, mean we have been able to weather these housing market conditions with minimal impact on profitability.
“Our business is already growing again on all major measures, whether that is in terms of usage of our website by home hunters, in terms of number of advertisers or in terms of their individual spend with us.”
Rightmove added that its strategic objectives at the start of the year was to stay on top as the UK’s leading property website and to maintain its advertising customer base – with the caveat, that so long as the advertisers themselves stayed in business. In fact, estate agents belonging to Rightmove have increased by 2% since the start of the year and now stand at 9,960.
Estate agents are also staying more loyal to Rightmove than a year ago: the retention rate is now 94% compared with 74% for the whole of 2008.
There has also been a 15% rise in letting agents to 3,632. Developer numbers are unchanged from a year ago, but the number of developments advertised is down 14%. Overseas homes advertisers are down 11% to 384, and holiday lettings advertisements are up 18% to 33,521.
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Comments
Can I ask estateagenttoday.co.uk why thay haven't also included the part in this story about the Rightmove MD Ed Williams saying he will be increasing Rightmoves fees to agents in early 2010.
In facy why haven't EAT picked up on this story at all?
Surely this is very relevant to the industry and agents have a right to know what RMs intentions are!
Is that not 94% retention from 74% drop? err going down! We severed over 12 months ago and now sell more properties as we don't advertsie the competitions properties. Agents seem to only use Rightmove as an instruction tool ... what goes in, must come out ... and thats why were now successful without Rightmove
The bubble has burst. are we to see cutbacks and shareholders selling?
Right move are doing no one any favors they are in business for their own ends. we stopped using them over a year ago and since then other agents have followed just like the newspapers that we all thought we had to advertise in the smart agents over the last two years have looked at their costs and realise that paying Right move £6000 a year which comes off their bottom line is money which could be spent locally to generate more business after all 75% of all property buyer move within 4 miles of where they previously lived.
He.He. A busy street full to the brim of nosy estate agents and surveyors comparing prices, old ladies looking to be within 100 miles of her daughter in a few years..not for me thanks, each to their own though.
As someone who established a new agency a few months ago, i find it re-assuring to read of agents successfully severing their ties with RM. I simply refuse to line RM's pockets with £500/month - there's no negotiation, even for start-ups! Considering my portfolio is still small, the likes of Globrix and Zoopla have performed extremely well for me. RM will fall off their perch before very long!
So if Rightmove say the recession has finally hit them - then this must be true!
I still can't believe some of the attitudes of "professional" estate agents on here. Why can people not accept people's opinion. People that use rightmove are not suckers, they use it because they see a positive return. Some people don't. So why is there a need to argue every time?? Grow up and start acting like professionals.
Rightmove clearly has the largest share of all the portals so I find it strange that other agents persist with trying every other site out there? All that does is just dilute your marketing, plus it opens you up to being 'hooked-in' by those other sites when they start to charge for listings (such as Globrix will be doing). My own view has been to target our internet advertising on just two sites - our own website and Rightmove. We spend £325 a month with Rightmove because we were one of the original member agents. I know of a competitor who spends over £1800 per month on several websites and to be honest he is trying to 'be all things to all men'. The way I think of it is like they do in the car industry...if you want a sooped up Merc then they offer you an AMG, if you want a sooped up BMW they offer you an Alpine...there are 101 car modifiers but the manufacturers just stick to 1 supplier rather than offering loads of choice. That's waht we should all be doing with Rightmove. We helped create it, its the most successful portal of all, and therefore it should be the ONLY one that we support. Simple.
how much is it anyway to advertise on rightmove. Were on find-a-property at the moment but thinking of going on rightmove but there taking forever to give me some prices
Agree with Lara...RM uses scare tactics that if you leave them then should you want to re-join they will charge you considerably more to get back on line. We stopped using RM agaes ago and it made no difference at all. RM are very good, however when they started out they were very much on their own however the other portals have all caught up with them.
ASs for Tim with his mumbo jumbo about shop window, street, packed with buyers..all a bit airy fairy to be honest.
RIP RM.
Tim, you appear to be the sucker for believing the stats they produce. The fact of the matter is I was scared to leave Rightmove, but I did it. I haven't sold any less houses and haven't lost one instruction as a result - in fact my instructions are now better quality and they are selling better than my local Rightmove members - because I don't have to increase my fee to justify the additional cost of Rightmove. Quality property at the right price will sell - regardless of how many internet sites you are on. All you and your fellow Rightmove members are doing is paying to send buyers around your houses - and then they see other boards in better homes - and call that agent. Cheers!
The value rich, is in the fact that Rightmove provides you with a shop window on by far the busiest street packed full of people looking to buy or sell property.
That shop window costs money, so does maintaining the flow of shoppers.
You don't seem to understand "no buyers" probably not where you are listing, but on Rightmove (remember THE busiest street there are buyers (and sellers).
Sucker!
Just shows people who use rightmove are suckers. The market has shown you are only as strong as the economy. No buyers = no sales.Rightmove cant give people a 20% deposit so where is the value.