Rightmove prepares to reveal 2019 full results on 28th February
All eyes will be on the portal to see if its profits continue to rise following punchy agent fee hikes last year, and whether more agents have left.
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Rightmove has announced that its full results for 2019 are to be released to the City on 28th February, its company secretary Sandra Odell has announced.
The results will be published at 7am followed by a presentation for analysts which will be held at the offices of Rightmove’s City adviser UBS at 9.00am.
But while investors will be licking their lips in expectation of another set of record results to boost their client’s pension funds, ISAs and other investment vehicles, this year may not be the usual profits jamboree.
Two dark clouds loom over Rightmove despite another 12 months of no-doubt incredible profits and continuing share buy-backs.
Last year criticism of the annual price increases introduced by the company were at their most strident among agents annoyed by double-digit increases despite difficult sales and lettings markets. These pushed the annual revenue for the branch to over £1,000 a month for the first time, although many agents had been paying this for some time already.
23% increase
One agent, Kristjan Byfield of Base Properties, revealed that his increase last year was 23%, a hike that the portal pushed through despite his strong complaints and attempts to negotiate it downwards.
And following its results last year, which revealed revenues up by 10% year-on-year, London agent KFH said it was considering leaving Rightmove and would spend a year doing comparative portal lead-generation studies.
Agents will also be watching the portal’s next results to see how many agents it has lost. Last year numbers slipped by 2% and the rising profile of OnTheMarket, and Zoopla’s significantly lower costs may drive an even larger reduction in agent numbers using Rightmove.
You can listen to the presentation live via audio webcast at the following link: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/z9vuxm79
Here are some thoughts on the ‘damage’ Rightmove and other property portals ‘may’ be potentially doing to your property business. Back in the day, agents would have pages of newspaper advertising, maybe six pages of neatly ordered properties, and at the top of each page the ‘mast head’ would be the company name and logo.
Along came Rightmove, and as an agent I used them – seeing it as a must have, and the I had Zoopla and other sites, as they evolved. My newspaper spend was now my property digital spend.
Now I realise I was wrong, luckily I no longer sell property only advise on it, but, property portals it can be argued seriously damaged my business in a number of ways, not intentionally, but as a byproduct of their structures.
First, when I was in the weekly paper, it was not just my properties that I had to sell that the public saw it was my company name and logo, my brand identity. Week after week the public would see the company name. When paper readership dwindled, my weekly branding also dwindled.
Second, property portals chop up my old style newspaper advert, remove my lovely brand banner, and cut up my adverts into sanitised little boxes all grouped in price order. So instead of a buyer or a potential vendor being greeted by an eye catching 6-page extravaganza in the Thursday edition of the Walford Gazette, my properties are digitally spread over the vast virtual pages of the portals. So my branding is diluted.
That is why agents need to make sure that for branding they have a huge digital footprint across social media, to make sure their ‘mast head’ newspaper brand from days gone by still exists. All social media from Tik Tok to Linkedin, from Facebook to Twitter and include all the new social media, because guess what your 16 year old consumer in 5-years may be you next best customer.
Many say Rightmove are like me a bit pig headed and self opinionated, (I certainly am) but luckily I am not the guardian of the UK property industry – showcasing all that is for sale and rent. But, I think that as more companies get to grips with social media and SEO etc, they will be less reliant on the property portals, and their branding will not be lost inside the gleaming walls of the property portals.
The 2020’s will be very interesting times.