Rightmove launches ‘love in’ with agents following fees furore
The portal says it wants to highlight the 'game-changing role' of agents in helping people to move, just two months after a petition against fee increases was launched.
Rightmove is launching a new campaign it says will “put the game-changing work of agents in the spotlight”.
The campaign comes just a couple of months after a petition was launched by independent estate agent Shaun Adams calling for an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into the portal’s charging policies. He accused Rightmove of “bullying” and “daylight robbery” over its latest fee increases.
Game changers
The campaign, called ‘The Game Changers’, involves Rightmove spending the next few weeks collecting positive stories from home movers and landlords about their experience working with agents.
This will “showcase the valuable role agents play in helping people to move”, Rightmove says.
The stories will be anonymised, and six winners will be chosen by a judging panel. The agents will then be featured in a summer marketing campaign, and also receive prizes.
We want to champion the estate and letting agency profession.”
Christian Balshen, Rightmove’s Director of Agency Partnerships, says: “It can be easy for some home-movers to undervalue the professionalism, knowledge and sheer hard-work that estate and letting agents put in to helping them – this is understandable given that people move home relatively infrequently when compared with other transactions in their life.
“We want to champion the estate and letting agency profession, and this campaign aims to remind people of the great work done day-in day-out by the property professionals of the UK.”
Milking machine
But Julian Blackmore, MD at Bournes in Andover, Hampshire, told The Neg: “I doubt Rightmove care about any agents, they are just a cash milking machine.
“In my opinion it’s a company who’s bottom line is fuelled solely by the stupidity of too many agents, as I said if they had any sense every agent would withdraw the bolt-ons and then watch the stock price crash,” he said.
“The sooner the CMA wades in the better for everyone.”
Too little too late, they will continue to overcharge their clients which has been going on for at least 15 years+ not only overcharge but provide zero customer service. However it is the agents own fault for continuing to use them and not getting the general public on their side. But maybe just maybe their Love Agents campaign might work in our favour, to get the public on board, still don’t be talked into using anything but their basic package for sales and don’t use them for lettings, no need!
Thanks for sharing this.
Let’s be honest — this “Game Changers” campaign from Rightmove feels less like genuine praise for agents and more like a PR deflection strategy.
After years of price hikes, corporate discounts, and radio silence when independents raised concerns, we’re now suddenly the heroes of the story? Rightmove has spent years taking more from the very agents who built its brand — many now paying up to ten times more than corporate competitors for the exact same service.
Celebrating agents while continuing to cripple them financially is tone-deaf at best, manipulative at worst. You can’t “champion” agents while squeezing them harder each year.
We don’t need token marketing fluff or a pat on the back — we need fair pricing, transparency, and genuine respect from the platforms we help prop up.
The petition I started wasn’t about noise — it was about action. And that action is long overdue.
– Shaun Adams
http://www.portalfeescandal.co.uk
Bang on.
I’ve been saying excactly this for more than long enough. Their bolt on’s are the absloute speedy boarding equivalent. Where is the difference when everyone takes them! Think back to your rep telling you how you must opt for a “micro site” and how you’ll stand out from the crowd, then everyone had one! If nothing else please just take the basic package.