Rightmove chief defends 17% hike in fees live at show

Rightmove Director Miles Shipside defended the hike in fees saying that the product offered value for money after Russell Quirk surprised him with the question.

Miles Shipside Rightmove

Rightmove Director Miles Shipside has defended its recent fee rise as representing value for money at the Propertymark One conference in Wembley yesterday.

TV pundit and property guru Russell Quirk was hosting Propertymark One’s Sales Insight Panel and opened the session with a glib jibe at the portal’s fees.

“With the cost-of-living crisis, the property market is somewhat contracted compared to a couple of years ago – transactions are down 30%.

“Yet Rightmove have just put their fees up by 17%. How do you justify that my friend?”

Miles replied: “It’s not just about cost it’s about the value of the product. As a customer of Rightmove you analyse your return on investment.”

DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

Quirk countered: “So to be my own Devil’s advocate… what’s Rightmove’s market share of agents compared to say 10 years ago?

“Despite the fact that some people might say you are expensive in terms of cost; the fact that Rightmove has more agents than ever rather plays to your argument that Rightmove provides value because if you didn’t then those agents wouldn’t still exist as customers.”

Shipside agreed with Quirk’s antagonising, simply replying “yes” to some bemused laughter.

With agents under pressure from other price rises Quirk moved the panel on to house prices.

“What has happened to the crash? The Halifax says that house prices are only 1% lower than they were 12 months ago. So where is the market going in the nine months since ‘that Budget’ – are we safe or should we be worried?”

TRANSACTIONS

Dr John Boyle, Director of Research and Strategy at Rettie & Co, told delegates: “The correction is coming in transactions – it’s not coming in prices. Mortgage rates are going up but a lot of existing mortgages have been stress tested at higher percentages.

“Also nearly 40% of transactions are done via cash and of the 60% done via mortgages some of those are quite small.”

John Boyle, Rettie & Co
John Boyle, Rettie & Co

Boyle went on to say that because people are gradually coming off fixed rates there was no sudden crash activity.

“Transactions will be down but prices should be contained so long as mortgage rates don’t start going over that critical 6.5% to 7% at which they have been stress tested,” he added.

Shipside added: “There is a lot of media speculation so dealing in facts is really important.

“Sales agreed are returning to 2019 levels. In the last couple of weeks with the mortgage hiatus sales agreed have gone down 6% below 2019 levels.

“The vast majority of the market still wants to move – although it is tough and challenging compared to what agents have been used to.”


2 Comments

  1. When Miles Shipside says Rightmove offers ‘value for money’, I would gently point out that regardless of the quality of photographs that agents send to the platform, they all look fuzzy (technical term) when displayed there. That’s because they downsample the image (probably either to save money or account for those with dial-up connections) and then display them at 150% of their physical size. Compare their image quality (or lack of it) with https://www.zillow.com/homes/ and you’ll see an incredible difference. Miles, at a time when it is not enough just to show houses, PLEASE give agents the ability to show them off. Be more like Zillow!

  2. Agents can only blame 2 types of agent…1) those that will not leave rightmove because they say they will use it against their competitors (you know the cowboy types) and 2) those that are stupid enough to pay for their add ons. If you all stop the addons, their profit will go over night. Stop being so weak the addons don’t make any difference.

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