Agents have been told by Rightmove that they face significant increases in their monthly fees when they come up for renewal.
EYE has been contacted by several agents this week who have been told to expect 10%-plus annual price hikes on their existing monthly costs.
Rightmove was contacted yesterday for comment. A spokesperson told EYE: “We can confirm that we’re having conversations with some agents where their memberships are due for renewal.”
The owner of one multi-branch agency, which is a long-standing customer of the portal, informed us yesterday that his firm will now be withdrawing from the portal as a result of the latest fee hike. But Rightmove has defended the rise.
The spokesperson commented: “Over the past 18 months we’ve worked on a number of innovations that are included as part of an agent’s membership, such as online viewings and viewings manager to help agents save time, data reports through the local market indicator available on the hub to help with business decisions, and training through webinars which have been attended by tens of thousands of agents. This includes a GDPR advanced course that 8,000 agents have completed to date.”
“These additions are alongside helping agents with the best exposure for their brand and properties to the UK’s biggest home-moving audience, and making thousands of updates to the platform.”
Rightmove achieved record levels of web traffic during the pandemic, registering 1.4 billion site visits in the first half of the year, as customers reassessed housing needs.
Rightmove’s half-year profit surpassed pre-Covid levels due to a buoyant housing market and reversal of discounts offered last year, while projecting strong sales for the rest of 2021.
The company announced that pre-tax profit rose to £114.7m from £61.6m, while the board said it was confident in delivering its expectations for the full year and beyond.
The spokesperson added: “It’s important to us that agents know how each of these tools [offered by Rightmove] and services could be useful for their business and so if any agents have not yet tried out any of our new developments their account manager can help them get started.”
Comments (41)
Yes But i am not the one who has the issue with the Rightmove fees or my own. I am very happy with both.
I don’t care what they do, I don’t use them left in 2017 and saved a fortune, I love having a little chuckle when I see all the brainwashed agents still using them and I smile, a big Cheshire Cat Smile. See you later suckers when you all catch up in the real world. Ha Ha Ha.
The secret is in NOT blaming Rightmove for your business models. The multi office tons of staff agency model is dying on it’s feet while Rightmove continue to grow their business year on year with an increasing client base who don’t mind paying their fees as long as it allows them to size up to the big companies who once thought they were Billy Big Bxxls just because they had the widest shop front in the village. Well thank heavens those days are over and we have a market where talent, dedication and hard work is paying people the wages they deserve which high street agency in this country never did. Instead of moaning about their fees you should increase your own through giving the public a great service that they are happy to pay for. It is possible if you open your stuffed shirt and roll up your sleeves instead of getting all hot and bothered about Rightmove prices. Bragging about saving £34,000 a year ? Eh ? That is like saying you are bothered about 2 house sale a month ? Come on, any business who is that hard up is doing it wrong.
“Bragging about saving £34,000 a year ? Eh ? That is like saying you are bothered about 2 house sale a month ?”
That would be 24 sales at £1416.67 average fee. If that’s your average, it sounds to me like you need to take a bit of your own advice:
“Instead of moaning about their fees you should increase your own“
Everyone moans and then does nothing. We’re a new agency, opened in January, funding wise we had a choice of either using JUST Rightmove or all the other except Rightmove. We haven’t lost a single instruction from not being on RM and have sold 90% of our stock. If there was ever a time to leave RM, in a market where property sells itself, it’s now.
If enough agents leave citing prices it’ll be the wake up call they need.
Agents have been told by Rightmove that they face significant increases in their monthly fees when they come up for renewal.
Ha ha, may possibly change to ……. it should unless you are a lemming
“RM have been told by Agents that they face significant increases agents leaving when they come up for renewal”.
Smell the coffee people.
OTM has a real opportunity right now but needs to go large-if not now when.
The profile is nowhere in the public realm and that awful advertising campaign has cheapened it. The actual site is fine. They need to up the anti and get the brand out there with a credible high profile(and yes -very expensive) campaign. Surely with all the millions being poured into PB and Boomin OTM could give a better return long term.
Time has to be right to do this with RM again upping the costs.
Wonder what the newly formed Connells Group of companies (now including CWD) pay versus a small independent branch network. I’m sure the levers of this “monolith” have been pulled very hard already probably before acquisition -and what if they came off Rightmove and onto OTM with a good share option…………… or will it be Zoopla.Rinse repeat
Its like Christmas, as soon as you hear Slade you know its on its way.
PIE story regarding RM you know price increases are incoming.
PeeBee – spot on 100%
Thank you, Mr Watkin.
You know I like to challenge “statistics”…
Above, the article states “Rightmove achieved record levels of web traffic during the pandemic, registering 1.4 billion site visits in the first half of the year, as customers reassessed housing needs.”
This is a comment I posted on EYE over six years ago
“Rather than use loads of technobabble allow me to explain “site visits” and their relevance in a slightly different way.
Imagine you own a motorway café. You have 73,500 cars pass your café in any 24-hour period – WOW!! – look how popular your café is, seen by all those people in their cars!
Thing is – of those 73,500 passing cars, 250 of them actually stop in the car park and enter the café.
Of those 250 ‘stoppers’, 100 of them walk straight to the loo… and then leave without sitting down at a table and ordering anything.
The 150 others actually buy something. Maybe only a packet of mints (guilt is a wonderful thing, innit?) – or maybe as much as a buttie and a cuppa.
FIGURES mean squat.”
“1.4billion”. That is a ten-figure number. It is also a figure approaching one fifth of the entire planet’s population. All looking for their next semi-detached mansionette in a leafy glade near you?
‘Doing the maths’ on “1.4 billion site visits” divided by the number of “sales” and lettings over the six month period…
…you’d be better off owning that motorway cafe.
They made 114.7 m profit
That is the maths
That maths equates to 12.2 pence profit from every “site visit”.
No doubt they are looking to increase that to ten bob by 2025…
It is still a profit of 1.4m
11.2 per visit for doing little = 1.4 surplus
The last thing we need is an online viewings and viewings manager! We qualify all viewings beforehand to ensure we are not wasting our vendors and our time taking time-wasters around properties they are clearly not remotely interested in buying. Furthermore, all appointments need to be scheduled so we are spending as little time in our cars as possible. Thanks Rightmove for providing something that I’m guessing the vast majority of decent agents neither need or want. Please correct me if I am wrong.
preCovid, 157,500 people moved home every month in the U.K. (resi sales and resi lettings combined)
Assuming people look on RM for upto 6 months before buying – that would mean at anyone time 945,000 individual unique visitors (6 x 157,500) would be visiting the site. Adding 20,000 estate & letting agents plus 5,000 surveyors getting comps and just under a million visitors to RM that serious.
Yet RM get 14 million unique visitors a months – note I say visitors. Those 14 million visitors visit in average 12 times a months. RM is not a portal – it’s an entertainment channel for the masses with their property **** obsession.
As Chris Arnold posted on LinkedIn this morning,
“ Greater visibility for the home you’re selling. The fallacy is that the more people who see the home online, the better the chances of it selling for a premium price. Said differently, the example doesn’t support the conclusion.
If 100,000 people see the home online, it doesn’t follow that any will necessarily buy, or that the home will achieve a premium price. But Rightmove don’t want agencies to question this.
The slippery slope with accepting the premise, leads agencies to become dependent on the portal. Agencies believe what they’ve been told. That greater visibility leads to success.
And they convince their vendors of the very same thing. The portals offer ‘proof’ in CTR statistics and page views. But singularly fail to point out that many of the click through’s are simply browsing. With very little or no intention to buy.
What’s required is not so much more views, but the right views. Not more people, but the right people. And for that, your agency has to be specific.”
The issue is, we hate our competitors more than RM , so afraid to leave as it will leave us exposed to losing listings- so we pay the RM tax
The answer?
read the article Chris published this morning- I can’t post the link as PIE doesn’t allow links – it’s worth the read
The company announced that pre-tax profit rose to £114.7m from £61.6m
‘yeah we need more’
I feel sorry for these RM account managers who have to look customers in the eye and tell them this. Well used to anyway, guess it’s easier over the phone…
We have not seen an account manager in the past 17 years – not even on Zoom or Teams. Could it be a robot to increase margins even further for RM?
And you’re still paying. What a great business model RM has!
You all have your choice in business. We left Feb 19 and if anything, are doing better than before, certainly not wasting unnecessary money. Why do we run a business? For our pockets or those of suppliers who do not support you??
Just read it again slowly. What a ffffing joke they are taking the ****.
– The company announced that pre-tax profit rose to £114.7m from £61.6m.
And they want to drastically increase prices as well?! Sigh… I guess it’s time to think about leaving.
RM’s hold is slowly ebbing away, but the snobs where we are still insist on seing their property on RM, even though we can demonstrate selling without it so we have a bare listing on sales. Already had the fee hike this year, far away and above our biggest expense.
Seems as though we are compensating RM for the many who have left. RM determined to suck every drop of blood from it’s customers before they re-position themselves to selling direct.
We left two and half years ago at a saving of £34,500 per annum, and whilst I will admit I was worried clients would leave, staff would leave, and our world would implode — guess what, we have had the two busiest years ever – Sold more, rented more and took on more stock.!!!
Face the fear and do it anyway as they will never change, so you have to – or forever stay in an abusive relationship, and carry on working for them, as they are not your partner there your boss.
Test your client’s loyalty — each year ask them for a double-digit price hike and see what they say!!!
Rightmove: the industry casino owner that always wins by fleecing customers so addicted that they just can’t walk away for fear of missing out. Either quit or put up and shut up!!
Another retailer who doesn’t get that the public wants better value for the price, better service etc.
We’ve all saved for 18 months and it will take a heck of a lot more to prize our savings away from us. Well, for most of us that is, as yes, lots are desperate to get rid of their money and waste it as before – but most are still saving
The ‘same as before’ won’t do! Restaurants, shops, businesses, take note.
Chants and shouting from an angry crowd….
Give me a C CCCCCCCCC
Give me an M MMMMMMMM
Give me an A AAAAAAAAAA
Put them together and what have you got – Silence…….
The industry doesn’t need to resort to CMA, Rightmove is an ageing legacy system whose only advantage is consumer habit.
Habit IS a hard thing to overcome until something comes along that is 10 times better or faster or more compelling. I have a product that is 10x better than Rightmove, it is faster and it is more compelling and because of that has a chance to break what is becoming a bad habit
Blimey, still talking about this product that is so great but nobody has seen.
This was always going to happen. Agents pulled together during the lockdown crisis and made the impossible happen.. Rightmove reduced their fees. 18 months on and they’re putting their rates back up.
I have a little chuckle to myself when I list on OnTheMarket & Zoopla for a total of £450.00 and see my competition paying £1250.00 plus for Rightmove for the same amount of business 🙂 For fool you all, for not doing anything about it. I left 18 months ago and best business decision I have made in 17 years.
Faceache and your own sites the one.
Either leave or stop moaning. I’m based in Manchester with 2 offices and left them in December 2019. I’m saving approx £30k per year and am letting and selling as quickly as ever.
I advertise on my own site, social media, otm and zoopla. Zoopla did try to implement an increase when the contract was due to expire but, unlike RM, were open to negotiations and actually waived the increase. It’ll happen again but I am paying a quarter of what I used to pay RM.
Serve notice today!
Exactly this! Rightmove are as big as they are and able to do as they do because agents continue to support them by advertising on their site. The public will go where the properties are. The more agents that stop using Rightmove and begin to use the other portals will drive more traffic to the other portals. If Rightmove lose their position due to their arrogance then it sends a clear message to other portals that you need to be careful in your approach.
This really isn’t rocket science.
2 years on and I am quite happy with the money I have saved.
They have told us our Optimiser package goes from £1750 to £2k per month in January.
TIME TO SET A DATE FOR THE GREAT RIGHTMOVE SWICH OFF!!!
I still blame onthemarket for this. Zoopla were the real competition and kept Righmoves prices down.
The way its going iam not sure any agentns will be left soon anyway… no stock.
We should also be paying per property as well, not per office.
“I still blame onthemarket for this.”
With respect, it’s time to change that particular record, Bless You.
OTM may have been a factor – but it was certainly not the cause. Evidence indicated that OTM’s arrival on the scene actually slowed the increases – I posted on this subject many times.
OTM’s ‘One Other Portal Rule’ was, in my opinion, wrong – again I am on record stating that. But they launched with it – with some 5500 Agent branches on board… all of whom had a choice as to which portal they retained. And they ran with it for a long period of time – again, new joiners would have needed to choose which other portal they kept.
From Day #1 OTMs message was clear in that they wanted to give Agents a way to reduce their portal spend. The fact that the majority of those Agents didn’t follow what was the only logical path that would make this happen is hardly OTMs fault.
“TIME TO SET A DATE FOR THE GREAT RIGHTMOVE SWICH OFF!!!”
That time has come and gone… and come and gone again. Several times over. And every time the time goes, it allows RM to move one notch higher up the ‘cocky’ scale.
It seems appropriate to end by re-posting a comment from almost three years ago (on, surprise, surprise, a ‘Rightmove fees-hike’ article), in response to a poster who said ““Their greed is killing Agents!!””
Here’s my response
“Yes – and no. Looked at another way – their greed is killing THEMSELVES. It’s just the longest… slowest… (so-far) least painful death on record. Looking at them, you’d think they were in the peak of health. We, in the meantime, are fuelling that health. In 2015 (and many times before) I said, here on EYE “…the portals are animals. WE bred them: WE fed them: WE tickled their tummies and told everyone what clever animals they were…” And so they became what they are today. I went on to say (this was when OTM was launched) “…and now WE threaten to cut off their food and attention. Like any animal, they revert to wild instincts when the chips are down. Self preservation is the only acceptable result for them – survival of the fittest. You can’t be surprised – it’s written into every animal’s DNA…” They will kick, bite, scratch and punch – but IF WE – their ONLY source of “food” – STARVE THEM, they can only wither and die. Every Agent has a free choice. #Your_Call”
” From Day #1 OTMs message was clear in that they wanted to give Agents a way to reduce their portal spend.”
My portal spend is now up 500% since on the market came along..
Please be quiet.
“My portal spend is now up 500% since on the market came along.”
Care to explain how that has come about?
“Please be quiet.”
How’s about you please stop being petulant.
No justification for 14% rise. Pure greed. Are they trying to get their profit margin up to 80% of turnover?