Rightmove acquires Van Mildert Landlord and Tenant Protection Limited
In a deal worth £16m, it's CEO says, “Van Mildert’s products and operational experience will augment the Rightmove Tenant Passport.”

Rightmove has announced the acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital of Van Mildert, the tenant referencing services and rent guarantee insurance provider.
Rightmove says that the products and operational experience of Van Mildert will further augment the Rightmove Tenant Passport proposition and what Rightmove calls its ‘vision of servicing the under-served rental marketplace’.
The tenant referencing firm is set to carry out 200,000 references on behalf of clients this year alone.
Van Mildert’s founder, Christian Balshen will continue to lead the Van Mildert team from their Newcastle office and work to “leverage the scale benefits that the Rightmove platform can bring to their referencing proposition.”
Strong – and rising – profits
Van Mildert delivered audited net revenues of £3.6m and profit before taxation of £1.4m for the year ended 30 November 2018, both up 19%. The company had gross assets of £3.3m as at 30 November 2018.
The purchase price comprises initial cash consideration of £16m, which will be funded from Rightmove’s existing cash reserves. Future deferred consideration is payable in 2022 covering the two-year period from January 2020 to December 2021 based on the revenue performance of the business, and is capped at £4m. Any deferred consideration is payable in cash. The acquisition is expected to be enhancing to Rightmove’s earnings per share in the first full year of ownership.
The transaction is subject to FCA change of control regulatory approval and is anticipated to complete by 31 October 2019.
Peter Brooks-Johnson, CEO, Rightmove said, “We’re looking forward to welcoming Van Mildert, a highly respected tenant referencing company, to the Rightmove family.
We believe the combination of Rightmove’s unrivalled reach and Van Mildert’s products and operational experience will augment the Rightmove Tenant Passport, helping in our quest to make renting a property faster, easier and more efficient for tenants, landlords, and agents alike.”
When I got the news of this on Friday – we use Van Mildert, I was reminded of what Rightmove did within a few weeks of the government announcing the day the Tenant Fee ban would become law – put up their prices well above inflation as they do year on year. I will definitely be using any price increase as a prompt to drop Van Mildert and support a competitor. We have found that On the Market has made very big strides to the close the gap with Rightmove and this should be encouraged with all the products agents use.
Zoopla own Jupix and Van Mildert links into Jupix so that will be interesting too!